Herbal Remedies
by Warlordess
Summary: It started with Akane’s losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn’t feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? Ranma x Akane romance.
1. Falling In

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad…

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Disclaimer** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title** – Herbal Remedies

**Chapter One** – "Falling In"

**Summary** – It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance.

OoO

The Nerima sunshine beyond his window didn't faze him in the least; after all, Ranma knew better. A perfect morning like this? Of course it would soon be ruined by Akane's temper, school, Akane's temper, a sudden rainstorm, and Akane's temper. And those were just a few examples of what stood before him as he lay there, sprawled out upon his futon in the morning hour before his classes started, willing the seven hours between that moment and a free afternoon later on to spin by.

Yes, he was aware that he'd mentioned his fiancés fury towards him three times. She was due to be angry at him after yesterday at school when she'd showed up with some chocolate cake she'd made in Home Economics and he, in panic, had made a mad dash in the opposite direction. Of course, afterwards, he'd offered a truce by taking her out for a snack, but, when she had mentioned at the table they were sitting at that she had packed away a single piece of said cake to keep it safe for him (apparently P-chan had showed up straight after he'd gone the first time and had offered to eat it all in hopes of making Akane feel better; Ranma had yet to find the rock that her pet had crawled under to die in from the terrifying pain), he had yet again taken off before she could throw the napkin holder, the stool, or her schoolbag at him and, in his rush, he hadn't had a chance to pay the bill. He'd then hidden himself in his room at the Tendo residence for the rest of the night, aware that stepping beyond the door would be risking lifelong scars.

So, you see, he was due.

And that's why he was laying there, willing away the seconds of time until his and Akane's father would trick her into coming to wake him up and she'd stomp up the stairs in her signature tomboy manner, throw open the sliding door, and reveal a bucket of freezing water to douse him with. She might then even take advantage of his weak moment of gender-switching and frigid change in body temperature so that she could whack him over the head a few times with her boken.

Like he said, he was due. . . But that didn't mean that he couldn't try and get out of the way of his punishment.

And so there was the familiar sound of her feet pattering up the stairs, though they were less of a stomp than a jumping skip on a week foundation, and he could hear her voice, low and grounding, against the bedroom door so that he couldn't distinguish what she was saying. And then, as the door slid swiftly open and her bulky yet somehow feminine silhouette appeared above him, Ranma's reflexes snapped to life and he leapt into the air, avoiding the wave of cold water that usually aimed for his still torso as he rested on the futon, because that was the area Akane usually aimed for.

But this time was different; this time, she wasn't holding anything that would normally contain liquid. In fact, she wasn't even carrying that venomous glare that she usually held when feeling angry with him. No, this time, it was truly something new, as she managed to grip him by the heels while was still in mid-air and, losing control of his trajectory, he fell and hit the ground hard on his bum (a very unflattering land, you know), and she removed her arms from their place, almost immediately replacing them around his middle.

And it only got weirder from there.

"Ranma. . ." She murmured affectionately as she leant in, their bodies now pressing lightly together (his eyes started widening in tune to her every exhale of breath against his lips), ". . .Aishiteru. . ." And, before he could even gulp in anxiety, she kissed him with a soft yet thorough force that sent him reeling backward.

Oh, yes, his eyes had actually fallen out at this point and his whole body went numb. After a few seconds, Akane let go of him and pulled away and, dazedly, Ranma had the chance to look around and wait for the multiple flashings of Nibiki's camera, or Happosai skipping into the room to turn him into a girl and feel up his breasts. Of course, that would be a new low for revenge on him, especially by Akane, but still. . . If she were really mad at him, what could've possibly stopped her from getting back at him?

But, well, that was one hell of a kiss (even he had to admit) and he didn't think that she'd risk their parents seeing something so. . . misinterpreable. . . between them, as she'd not even bothered to shut the door.

So now, basically, he'd ruled it out as being some trick for yesterday, and that left only one truly logical explanation. With that thought, Ranma leant forward and, ignoring Akane's mute and strangely calm reaction to his doing so, placed his palm to her forehead, checking for a fever. After all, if it wasn't a trick, it could have only been delirium, right?

But. . . no, she definitely didn't have a fever. . .

He hurriedly withdrew his hand from her face as she seemed to be enjoying its presence there far too confidently. Did that mean that her confession of love had been real. . . ?

Yea; sure. Real random, at least.

Well, he was going to have to do something about this before anyone found out. He could already imagine their fathers' blissful pleasure at Akane's admission to him. . . They'd be married by morning! And then there was Kuno, Ryouga, and every other freak or love-starved changling who had some weird fetish for uncute, built-like-a-brick, tomboyish chicks that. . . well, had this strange ability to smile, act, and dress sorta cute when they really tried.

He shook his head – this was not the time. He didn't love her! In fact, he knew that she probably didn't love him either! This had to be something else. . .

Sweet-girl Akane placed a light grip on his shoulder, smiling down at him with an attractive demeanor, "Ranma, you still have to bathe before school and we leave in half-an-hour. I got Kasumi to make all of your favorite foods for lunch so you have something to look forward to."

Ranma just stared. Okay; recap. Not only had Akane told him that she loved him, she'd decided to help him be on time for class and, knowing his opinion of her cooking, hadn't decided to prove that love by forcing one of her experiments down his throat. How frighteningly. . . kind of her.

"Ano. . . A-arigatou. . ." He stated in a strained voice as he shook her hard off of him and left the room, hoping to escape her sight. His brushing her off, however, didn't seem to deter her new persona in the slightest, as he soon found out. It seemed that, upon his entering the bath, she'd laid out his day clothes, and he found a plate of white rice, pickles, seaweed, and a glass of green tea waiting for him at the breakfast table. His schoolbag and shoes were sitting by the front door, along with an umbrella in case they had one of those sudden rains that he so dreaded.

But, as wonderful as this seemed to be, as Ranma walked along the fence above Akane, staring down at her curiously as she skipped along the way to school, he knew that he couldn't let it last. She didn't seem to mind the prospect of their many classmates and anonymous other suitors and fiancés who'd object to her non-argumentative relationship with him or the fact that when she had told him this morning that she loved him, he hadn't returned or declined the gesture.

Any why not? Besides the fact that it had obviously caught him off-guard, he couldn't think of one reason why he'd be so unable to let her down softly. Given, he'd never been very good at telling a girl anything she didn't want to hear, but. . . but this was Akane! She wasn't a girl! Shew as a maniacal, waistless macho-chick with no self-control! He knew he could handle this. . . !

So he jumped down from the fence as they neared the schoolyard, trailing after the Tendo daughter's back and swallowing the urge to want to just turn tail and run.

He was not a coward!

He could do this!

"Akane, I. . . I have to say. . ." She turned to him with an enchantingly feminine smile but he tried to press onward, ". . .something. . . pointless and stupid about the weather. . ." Yea, _that_ was brilliant. "It's so. . . so. . . _sunny_." Oh, yes, even more brilliance.

"Isn't it? I was just thinking the same thing! Oh, isn't it great how we're so in tune with one another?" She asked gleefully and grabbed firmly onto his arm as they entered the grounds.

It sure as hell was _not_ great. If he'd ever bothered to say something that dull and immature to the real Akane, she'd have drop-kicked him so hard he'd have scars for half a year. . . ! Or, she'd at least have scorned him. . . and ridiculed him. . . But sweet and star-struck Akane just didn't seem to be into it.

So the two of them walked into the grounds, which filled with a rumorous air as everyone caught sight of them arm-in-arm. Of course, Ranma attempted to ease Akane off of him but she wouldn't budge. It seemed that, with her new attitude, she also retained her gorilla-like strength. Suddenly, just as he'd been resigning himself to his face, someone called his name.

"Oh, Ran-chan, oha. . . yo . . . !" He turned to see Ukyou, whose greeting tapered off into nothingness as she too saw the strangely coincidental hold that Ranma was currently a part of.

Of course, many things started going through her head as she tried to find a reasonable explanation for what was going on. After all, that's what the kawaii fiancé did. But it was Ranma and Akane! Her Ran-chan and her rival for his affection! And they were openly displaying their relationship. . . ?

By the time Ranma had gotten to Homeroom, he'd been hit repeatedly over the head with both a giant spatula and a boken at the hands of a crazed Uo-chan and Tatewaki Kuno.

And, again, the thought of a good day sure to go bad came to mind as he sat there in his seat and heard the dronings on of his teacher talking about something he hadn't cared enough about to pay attention to. While leaning back to think of some way to get Akane back to normal, said love-struck fiancé had the chance to send him four notes, reminding him not to slouch, to pay attention or he'd be put in the hall and made to await lunch while holding buckets of cold water, one just to say that she loved him more than life itself (at which time he'd heard the sharpening of the guillotine's blade at the thought of all of those apposed to his betrothal to her in the first place), and the last one was sent to be sure that they were still going to eat lunch together.

Oh, yes, he'd forgotten that part of the dutiful wife routine. . . The last thing he wanted everyone to see was her feeding him. And he had yet to tell her the truth about his feelings for her, the fact that he didn't feel the same way for her as she did for him. . . Or so he thought. Then again, if this was all as he expected, that meaning that it was all a strange, enforced spell-like likeness to love and not the real thing. . .

Because Akane wasn't like that. She was too busy ranting about how she hated boys and too busy going through her afternoon training and fending off Happosai and Kuno and all of those other hentai that chased after her. And how many times had she said that she hated him? Or, well, even if she didn't mean it when she said it. . . In comparison, how many times had she said she loved him? And how many of those times had turned out to be nothing but an influence from a spell or sickness of some sort?

Ranma spent his lunch hour on the roof trying to think of what had caused Akane's mental status to go so awry (he'd told her that he was going to see their History sensei about extra-credit and, so entranced, she'd believed him), and it did end up taking that long anyway as he had to take into account their where-abouts and actions for the day before, and the people they interacted with.

But he was often distracted by his fiancés pleased expression drifting up from the depths of his memories as she held onto him in the hallways (oblivious to the disgusted glares and embarrassed squeals of their peers that Ranma, in the meantime, was forced to endure) and. . . that estranged, vivid kiss from this morning (which, miraculously, their parents had yet to hear about). Maybe, just maybe, he was looking into this too much. Maybe she actually _did_ love him and he. . .

--His eyes snapped open from his spot laying on the roof. That was it. He knew what had gone wrong now. . . ! It was so, _so_ simple! How could he have not remembered it?

He got to his feet and dusted himself off with a broad grin on his face. Raving towards the door, he was so ecstatic that he didn't see it open until it was too late.

"My Ranma. . . !" Akane crooned, stepping hurriedly outside, "It's time to get back inside! Class is starting again soon!" She hadn't even noticed that he'd hit the ground after crashing head-first into the surface of the door or that she'd proceeded to step on his face multiple times until he let out a pained groan of unconsciousness, ". . .Oh, Ranma!" She cried dramatically and picked him up bridal style into her arms, carrying him back inside and down the halls.

If he'd been awake, Ranma would have felt the anger, mockery, and pleasure from his peers in waves, not to mention the countless items that they threw at him and Akane in revulsion and embarrassment of their ultra-super-fun-time mushy behavior.

OoOoO

**Notes** – Oi, my first ever Ranma fic! I never thought I'd get to write one; lol, I'm such a coward. Anyway, lesse, so far, I think this'll only be about five chapters long (only because I'm hoping that you guys will like the beginning enough to review and come back for the next part). Which leads me to my next topic! Reviews! Chibi loves 'em, peeps, more-so than life itself (some believe)! And since this is my first ever Ranma fic, I'd really appreciate some type of comment or criticism. . . but mostly comments that aren't criticism. Heh. And from as many of you readerse as possible! Thank you in advance to those who do it!


	2. Falling Out

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad…

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title** – Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Two** – "Falling Out"

**Summary** – It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance.

OoO

Ranma was out for a good twenty minutes. He woke up in the Furinkan High School infirmary with Akane there beside him, wiping his brow with a comfortingly cool rag. No one else seemed to be there, which was just fine with him because, between Ukyou's current anger, Kuno's apparent hatred, and Ryouga's bad timing, he'd be sent right back out again. Or killed. Yea; it was more likely that he'd be killed.

"Oh, poor Ranma. . . You know that I love you, but you should really stop getting into so many fist-fights. . . They seem to be taking a toll on your health," she murmured affectionately and he suppressed the urge to grunt at the fact that she didn't realize that she was the one who had knocked him out in the first place. Akane, who hadn't noticed that he was awake as of yet, continued speaking, "When I'm made your wife, we'll find a way to contain that troublesome fighting spirit of yours."

". . . NANI!" Ranma shouted, unable to contain himself. He jumped out of bed and to the side opposite of the crazy girl who called herself his fiancé.

"Ranma. . . ?" She looked thoroughly delighted to see him awake, never mind that he'd been eavesdropping on her self-discussion or that he was currently looking at her as though she were clearly insane, "Daijobou ka? I suppose you are. . . I'm so glad." She smiled warmly at his presence.

Ranma didn't have the ability to feel even just a slight amount of gratitude. At the moment, the immense lump seemed to be preventing him of uttering a single word, kind or otherwise, including his current opinion of her; she was crazy. It was utterly insane that someone as violent as Akane would approach his martial arts skills and deter his performance! Not only that, but he was heir to the Saotome school of martial arts! The reason they were to be wed had to do with their taking over the Tendo dojo and uniting it with the Saotome School!

And what was this proclamation she was making about becoming his wife? Yeah, sure, they had acknowledged their engagement to each other and all but. . . But they weren't supposed to get married willingly! They were supposed to fight tooth and nail against their parents wishes!

"I. . . Ano. . ." Why couldn't he tell her off? Why couldn't he let her know that there was no chance of his quitting martial arts or wedding her? Why couldn't he just have the old Akane back. . . ?

Then it hit him again. That was right; he remembered now. The reason for Akane's behavior was so easy to see.

Yesterday, after he'd run from her chocolate experiment from Home Economics, he'd offered to make it up to her by taking her to a restaurant for a treat. . . And he'd chosen the Nekohatan. After he'd run off again, how could he have not been suspicious of leaving his fiance and Shampoo in the same part of the city, let alone in the same room. . . ?

His eyes darting towards the clock, Ranma contemplated what he should do. It was almost one in the afternoon. The Nekohatan would be busy because of their business day lunch hours. And he and Akane still had two of their afternoon classes left. . . It would probably be better to wait until he could corner Shampoo and force her to hand over the antidote for. . . Whatever she'd done to the Tendo girl.

Then he saw a furious Kuno and Ryouga, Ukyou and Kodachi, in his minds eye. The combination would undoubtedly kill him if they all came to attack at once, especially if he had to protect Akane at the same time. . .

There was no way this could wait. He had to get that antidote _now_.

"C'mon, Akane, we gotta go somewhere!" He said firmly, pulling her up onto his back and leap from the second story window, outside onto the lawn. As he was climbing the fence leading beyond the school grounds, he became uncomfortably aware of Akane placing her arms securely around his neck, leaning against his back. He coughed slightly to try and shake her off but when that didn't work, he refused to let it bother him anymore.

He had far worse things to worry about now.

"Ranma, where are we going?" She shouted into his ear over the striking sound of the wind whistling past them, "School's still in session; we should head back!" She pulled on his clothes as though to turn him around and steer him in the opposite direction.

"No way! And let go of me!" He replied angrily, finally finding his voice, "Don't you realize that you've been acting really strange since this morning? Or did Shampoo erase all of your memories of being a kawaiikune tomboy macho-chick along with your rabid personality!" He finished ferociously.

Akane didn't answer him with fists or words and, for a couple of minutes of their leaping along fences and rooftops, all was silent. Ranma contemplated apologizing to her, but she didn't really give him the chance. He barely noticed her crying, that was, until it began to leave the back of his shirt rather damp.

"Akane. . ." He sighed.

"Ranma, you're. . . You're such a baka!" She shouted, and then clamped a hand to her mouth, eyes going wide. Ranma couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as he landed in front of the Nekohatan and set her down; the old Akane must have been back. Finally, he took a moment to tell her he was sorry for his comment.

"Gomen nisei," he said gleefully, turning to enter Shampoo's restaurant, but his voice wasn't the only one to be heard, ". . . Nani. . . ?"

"Gomen, gomen, gomen!" Akane repeated as she bowed in forgiveness, looking horrified at what she'd said, "Onegai, forgive me for my words. They were uncalled for!"

"You. . . You're joking. . . ?" He asked, pointing at her. She shook her head, "Argh! I don't know how much more of this I can stand! Why aren't you hitting me? Or kicking me across town?" He shouted, his fists clenching as they ran frustrated through his hair, "What's it going to take, Akane, to get you back to normal!"

She was quiet for a moment, and stared confusedly at him as though she had either not understood his question or as though she didn't consider anything to be wrong. As though he hadn't said a word, she struck up a conversation of her own.

"Ranma, how do you. . . feel about me?" She seemed to be straining herself not to ask the question too excitedly, as though she already knew in the first place and, while he couldn't help wondering why, Ranma found himself back in the same place he had been in to begin with.

"Nani. . . ? Matte, why are you asking?" He asked, hoping to avoid having to tell her what had been on his mind all day long.

He didn't love her, he couldn't because she was acting so weird and unlike her. He didn't because she didn't really love him either. He didn't because he was a martial artist and therefore had no time for girls, because being in love with Akane would mean being married before he was out of high school, and that would mean that he'd be tied down to Japan, to Nerima, and he'd be unable to find Jusenkyou's Nan'nii-chuan. But those were some rather poor reasons to savagely break a girls heart, weren't they. . . ?

"Onegai, just tell me. . ." Again Akane seemed to be talking to him in a tone that he didn't quite understand.

"I. . . Ano, that is to say. . ." He started self-consciously, but was interrupted by a new arrival.

"Nihao, Ranma!" Shampoo stated loudly and affectionately as she came flying at him from inside, her arms wrapping around his neck, "You come see Shampoo? I so happy!" She giggled.

Ranma, for once, let her hang there, glancing confidently in Akane's direction. If there was one thing he knew she couldn't stand, it was his allowing himself in the company of other girls. There was no way she'd let him get away with this.

But, contrary to his beliefs, she merely crossed her hands above her skirt and said with a sweet smile, "You two are such great friends! I'm so happy that you get along this well!"

His eyes widened. No way. It seemed that the uber-lovely Akane was not going to be beat. Thinking this despondently, he went to remove Shampoo's grip from his neck, but she'd already done so, and was now standing in front of Akane, prodding her and inspecting the resolutely kind grin that was on her face.

"Aiya! Ranma no tell violent girl yet? She still infatuated with you? What you thinking?" She yelled, coming back towards him with an angry expression on her face.

Rather than trying to back away and explain himself, Ranma grabbed hold of the Amazon's wrists, "Ah hah! I knew it! I knew you did something to Akane! What was it? A love potion?"

"You kidding? Love potion faulty, or permanent. I no want obstacle like kitchen destroyer in love with Shampoo's Airen forever. Is too complicated." Her words made sense for the most part. But if Shampoo wanted Ranma all to herself, why force Akane to express her love for him in the first place. . . ? The way Ranma saw things, the situation was _already _complicated.

"Well then, what did you do. . . ?" He asked exasperatedly. Shampoo almost brightened at the question and led both students inside of the Nekohatan, which seemed to be completely empty, "Nani? Where is everyone?"

"We take day off. Know you be coming." Shampoo replied with a sly grin, leading them to the bar stools next to the counter, "You want know what happened. . . ? Is thanks to ancient three-thousand year old Amazon herb!" She withdrew a small packet from nowhere and showed it to him, "It ensnares senses of most hid emotion; extracts it from the consumers soul and forces it on person it being held from."

"You mean. . ." Ranma looked over at Akane, who seemed to be smiling blissfully at the air around her, not paying attention to a word of their conversation. Did that mean that. . . She really was in love with him? It wasn't just some magic trick? ". . . But why?"

"Shampoo no baka. I know violent girl love Airen, but Akane always work so hard to make you think otherwise. That why Shampoo force love out. That way Airen can dump violent girl for real and you and Shampoo can be together; yes?" She said confidently, throwing herself at him, "All you have do is tell Akane you no love her and herb make her feeling disappear. Then you date Shampoo!"

Ranma picked her up off of him and set her down again, thinking. All he had to do was tell Akane that he didn't love her back and she'd forget all about loving him in the first place? That meant that he wouldn't have to worry about her crying or being heart-broken. . . ! It would just go away and he wouldn't have to feel like an idiot for hurting her. . . !

It was simple, so simple. . . But then, why wasn't he leaping at the chance to go ahead and do it? Why wasn't he so excited at the thought of Akane not caring about him. . . ? Why did he feel that Shampoo might've just happened to cross a big line by forcing Akane's most unbidden emotion to the surface?

"Ano, Shampoo. . . Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I told her that I. . . Did love her. . . ?" He asked, hardly daring to believe that he was considering doing just that.

Shampoo looked slightly curious at the thought too and peered closely at the directions on the back of the packet.

"It say spell break, but consumer remember everything that happen, including words spoken to break spell. That mean she remember what you say, but only if you tell her you love her." Shampoo laughed, "Good thing is only hypothetical, yes?"

Ranma joined in, "You got that right!"

They continued laughing for a few seconds before Ranma suddenly stopped and made a quick grab for the packet. He managed to grasp it and began to pull it from Shampoo's grip but one of the corners seemed to have a line of invisible string tied to it. It was lifting up into the rafters and, looking up, Ranma noticed a bucket of cold water teetering from a very thin plank of wood right before it fell, landing on top of his head. Shampoo jumped away from the booby trap and the small pack of herbs poofed, turning into a bouquet of trick flowers.

"Aiya, what you try to do?" Shampoo asked. However, she was interrupted by Akane.

"Ah, my Ranma! Daijobou ka?" She wailed, jumping forward as the newly revealed female Ranma-chan spewed some of the water from her mouth and removed the bucket from her head.

"Fine, just fine. . ." Ranma-chan said, cursing to herself. She had been so close, too; but, then, Shampoo rarely held onto the true item she'd gained from her country to use against them. Ranma-chan didn't have time for this, though. She'd just have to try some other tactic, "Oi, Shampoo?"

"Hai, Airen?" The Amazon asked fondly, coming back to the pigtailed girls side.

"You love me, right?" She asked with theatrically damp eyes.

"Hai!" Shampoo replied confidently.

"Well, you know. . ." At this point, Ranma-chan lowered her voice so that Akane was sure not to hear, ". . . that I don't like to tell girls things they don't wanna hear, but we both know that I don't like Akane that way. All I need to do is put those herbs in my food and wait for 'em to take effect; then I can tell her without doing anything wrong, right?"

". . . Hai!" Shampoo said again, now understanding the plan, "I give you secret Amazon herb and you tell violent girl you no love her. Then you and Shampoo date!"

"Ano. . ." Ranma-chan started, but she didn't continue trying to revise the statement since Shampoo was already removing the real envelope from her pocket, ". . . And can I get some hot water, onegai. . . ?" She pointed out.

Shampoo nodded and began to head into the kitchen but Akane seemed to have been waiting for this request. She pulled a thermos from her schoolbag and handed it to Ranma-chan, who unscrewed the lid and poured it over her head. Ranma shook off the droplets and remnants of steam right after.

"Now that's much better. Shampoo?" Ranma said, holding out his hand. The Amazon placed the herb into his palm but, just as he was ready to leap out the front door, she took it back, "Ah. . . ?"

"You no get away that easy. Shampoo know better. I prepare meal and Airen eat herb here. And be careful," she started as Ranma tried to nab it back, "This last one. If lost, is no more." She finished, and he quickly withdrew his hand.

The thing was, he wasn't sure how he felt about Akane. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling that filled his gut whenever she smiled at him, and when she told him that she loved him, it didn't make him want to run to the opposite end of the Earth just to escape her. It was more just the attitude she used when she acted so affectionately.

After all, what was wrong with squeezing his lungs from his chest as she embraced him, or if she threw a right hook at him as she handed him breakfast, or if she roused him from bed with a bucket of freezing water every morning. . .? He was used to a lot of that already, so it wouldn't take much, would it?

Of course, if he told Shampoo this, she would never just hand over the herb, and without that, he'd never be able to tell Akane anything. . . He'd have to live with her acting all happy-go-lucky for the rest of his life. . . !

"Hai. . ." He replied finally, taking a seat next to his fiancé. Shampoo hopped over the counter and threw on a frilly apron, removing some soba noodles from the under-the-counter storage area and setting them in the fryer.

After she finished thawing the noodles, she placed them in a bowl and slit the top of the packet of herbs, sprinkling them in the broth.

"Order is up!" She said as she handed the bowl to Ranma.

"Ikanakida!" Ranma said to no one in particular as he broke apart his chopsticks and dove into the food, slurping it up in a matter of minutes (only because they were still rather hot for his tastes).

He looked around at Akane, just in case that was how the spell was activated, but nothing seemed different about the world. If he felt something for, well, anything in this room, Akane, Shampoo, or even the stool he was sitting on, he'd have thought something would've happened.

Shampoo, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines, picked up the discarded packet and again turned to the directions, warning, and nutrition labels on the back. Akane, oblivious to the plans held between and separate of her fiancé and the Amazon, merely sat in her seat, drawing little hearts on her napkin with 'Ranma' and 'Ranma + Akane 4-ever' in the center.

"Aiya! It say some consumer possibly find product take longer to effect them, or it can even be completely ineffective!" She wailed, truly disappointed by the news.

"Well. . . Let's just wait a while longer before we consider this whole thing useless. . ." Ranma sighed, chancing half a glance in Akane's direction. However, even after fifteen minutes, he still couldn't feel himself stressing over any new strength of emotion, "Ah, well; gomen, Shampoo, but Akane and I gotta go. Things to do, people to see, scheming hentai and parents to avoid. . ." Ranma saluted her in farewell, getting to his feet, and he and Akane simply walked out the door, "Now. . . What am I gonna do about you. . . ?" The Amazon heard him ask as the two betrothed teenagers left her shop.

"Yes; what to do now. . . ?" She muttered almost ruefully to her empty room, disappearing behind the counter.

Outside, Akane was asking Ranma if he was feeling well after he'd eaten so fast. He shrugged at her and they continued walking home as school was no over for the day. After awhile, she seemed to notice how he was consumed with his thoughts (although she didn't know that those thoughts were to do with her) and she skipped ahead of him, humming some anonymous tune.

Suddenly, as Ranma caught sight of her ahead, some large fire began to burn painfully within him; it was something he'd felt before, he was sure, but it was unfamiliar, and much stronger than he could remember. . . It made him want to move, to do something because. . .

"_Ite_! Ite, ite, ite!" He shouted repeatedly, hoping to quell the sensation burning through the back of his shirt and afflicting his skin. Happosai leap past, laughing, and quickly and skillfully lifted Akane's skirt as he made his way into the Tendo dojo about one hundred feet away. He was twirling his lit pipe in his hand as he went, and there was a sack of undergarments on his back, "Jiji. . ." Ranma growled threateningly.

"How. . . How dare he!" Akane screeched fiercely as she securely patted down her skirt. Ranma, for one moment, thought that the real Akane had decided to come back and injure Happosai in more ways than one, "I only give one man the right to touch me that way!" She finished, and Ranma face-faulted, trying to avoid the nosebleed he would undoubtedly get from that statement.

That was _so _not Akane.

The two of them ran the rest of the way to the dojo in hopes of catching up to the hentai martial arts master. As they were hurriedly discarding their shoes at the front door, however, things for Ranma suddenly went. . . well. . . poofy.

It was like he was in some dream, that which erased every reality and belief he'd ever known. The world was suddenly gone, everything accept for Akane, who was still unaware of his new estranged state of mind. He couldn't knock the feeling that her shadow emitted a rosy hue in his direction through this new point of view.

She was able to move from the foyer and about as far as the main room before he came up behind her and spun her around, landing her softly in his arms. The two stared into each others eyes, unwavering, and then. . .

"Akane. . . Aishiteru. . ." He told her and her eyes went misty with pleasure. She put her arms around his neck and they held each other close, "I knew I did. . . But how could I say it when your beauty rendered me speechless whenever you walked into the room. . . ?"

"I know, Ranma; I feel it, too. Ai. . . Aishi. . ." Akane faltered and shook her head because, all of a sudden, her displaced and disfigured reality had begun to slide back into place. And, just as she began to wonder what the hell had been going on, all of the things she'd been doing since yesterday had impacted upon her full-force.

She looked up again, hoping to understand why Ranma was openly holding her in his arms, just in time for him to swoop in and land a big wet one right on her lips.

OoOoO

**Notes **- Hell, yea! It took me forever and a day to finish that chapter! Thank you to all of those who reviewed and / or put this fic into their favorites section! You have no idea how happy it made me to find out that I'd actually gotten some commentation, all positive, and some from new readers of my work! Also, much thanks to **gladdecease**, who's chosen to read my first attempt at a Ranma fiction even though she doesn't know a lot about the series! It makes me feel pretty damned good to know that my writing can be attract even to those who are new to the fandom.

On a different note, I've been placed into foster care. Yes, that was just slightly north of the boarder to the land of Random. But I have, which has proved to be a not-so-bad thing. They have a computer that's relatively new and, since I fixed it for them, they're planning on getting the internet sometime soon. Until then, I'll just write up the chapters of my fics here and save them on a floppy disc, then upload them later at the library. The system works, babes.

Anyway, please review and look forward to the next chapter of my fic! Thanks in advance and see you next time!


	3. Anything For Akane

A **Ranma ½ **Fan Fiction. . .

**Author **- Chibi / Warlordess

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known. . . I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title** – Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Three** – "Anything For Akane"

**Summary** – It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance. Kind of. :P

OoO

All she could really see at this point were Ranma's half-closed eyes as he held her to him, kissing her with splendor. Two seconds later, she'd managed to pull herself away and had successfully sent her fist flying into his face.

He was sent crashing straight back through the front door and, breathing heavily, Akane reached her full height, flustered, angry, and praying that she and Ranma hadn't been seen by any of their family.

Of course, she turned right to enter the main room and caught sight of her father, Genma, Nibiki, Kasumi, and Happosai staring fixatedly at her in complete silence. The television blared behind them, the iron in the martial arts master's hands began burning through the lingerie that he was trying to straighten, and yet none of them seemed to have the ability to think about those things.

"I. . . I can explain! I mean, probably not, but. . . It-it's not what you think!" Akane started, waving her hands wildly in front of her. She was cut off by Ranma appearing behind her and wrapping his arms around her middle.

"Koonichiwa, my kawaii fiancé. . ." He murmured lovingly.

"You. . . You. . . HENTAI!" She replied, turning around and slapping him repeatedly, "Hentai! Hentai! Don't you dare hold me like that just because I was acting off before! I'm back now and you won't be taking advantage of me!"

I. . . But, Akane, I would never dream of taking advantage of you. How could you say something so cruel when we've spent the day becoming aware of our feelings and professing our love to each other. . . ?"

"I. . . I. . . You know that I didn't mean it! I was--"

"--No, Akane! Your Outo-san will not allow your love for Ranma to go unsaid for any longer!" Soun shouted emotionally, leaping forward and grabbing onto her hands, "My little girl will not let this chance pass her by!"

"Outo-san, you've got it wrong! I don't - I don't feel that way. . . Not for him!" Akane started, elbowing Ranma in the gut so that he stepped away from her after trying to sneak up and envelope her in an embrace again, "I don't know what's going on. I mean, I do, but it's all--" She broke off, sputtering for a few seconds, "Nevermind. . . It's confusing. Just know that I'm not going to let you force us into marriage just because _Ranma_. . . has lost his mind." She glared at him and he grinned apologetically in response.

"I haven't lost my mind. . . I'm just in love with your daughter, Tendo-san." Ranma drooled fondly.

"And there we go!" Akane threw her hands into the air and turned away, crossing her arms. Her affronted behavior was interrupted by the timed clicking of a tape recording video camera, "Nibiki-oneechan, what do you think you're doing?"

Genma, on the other hand, followed after Soun, latching onto Ranma in glee.

"Ah, my boy, you have no idea how happy you've made me! Now that it's finally been done, the Saotome Martial Arts legacy is secure!" He punched a fist into the air, pulling Ranma's with him, "Kasumi, it's time for a congratulatory drink! Set out the sake!"

All three men ran back into the room practically dancing, leaving Akane standing there, her complaints unheard. She bowed her head, growling, and then the shouting began once again.

"No! You've got it all wrong! It's - it's not true, it can't be! Ranma doesn't love me! It's all a trick of Shampoo's! So stop planning the wedding already! It's not going to happen!" And without waiting to hear their responses, she stomped out back and to the dojo to try and relieve herself of the stress of all that was going on.

She quickly pulled on her beige training garb and tied her sash tightly around her waist, securing it with a double-knot. Angrily, she gave an abrupt shout and shot her leg high into the air. Then she spun on her heel and replaced it with her other leg; she retracted again and regained her stance, pacing forward, throwing a punch with every step she took.

Suddenly, a flitting silhouette of a being dropped down in front of her from the rafters in the ceiling and, in shock, she yelled, catching a newly revealed Ranma in the face with her fist.

"N-nani? Ranma, what are you doing here?" She asked, too stunned to retaliate at his horrible excuse for an entrance.

"You're angry at me. I can't bear it when you're angry at me." Ranma cooed with misty eyes, "So just tell me what I need to do to make it right, okay. . . ? Onegai?" He pleaded with her.

She sighed; he was acting so desperately. . . well. . . adorable, loyal, and willing to make it all go away. . . that she couldn't really see how to tell him that she didn't know any way to set it right.

She collapsed against the dojo wall and he joined her, still looking abysmally hopeful and waiting for her to answer him.

"I don't know what you want me to say; it's really nothing you can fix. Outo-san and Saotome-san will have a field day with what you told me in front of them. . . and that kiss didn't help any."

Ranma's expression sobered up even more and he pressed his finger to the floor in front of him, allowing it to make small swirling motions against the dust settled there.

"Gomen. . . Demo; it's only because I wanted to show you how much I love you that I did that--"

"--Oh, Ranma, just give it up!" Akane slammed her fist into the floor, the wood splintering around her, "You don't really love me! Or don't you remember? Because I do. The last thing I remember doing that was normal was eating at the Nekohatan yesterday after school. Shampoo put something in my food; it did something to me, _made _me love you. And then, I dunno. . . it's still fuzzy. . . I think she meant to have you fall for her, and the plan backfired. . . Demo, I can't be sure. Either way, you've got it wrong. . . You don't really love me." She finished with a pained sigh, wringing her wrist.

"Demo, if you're not sure about what happened, then how can you possibly be so sure about my not loving you? True, I've never actually said it to you, and the second we start getting close, the moment's almost always instantly ruined by someone jumping out of nowhere and getting in between us, and then there's just _us_; between our pride, the pressure of our situation and everyone trying to get involved in it. . . It does get to be a bit. . . Crazy." He cleared his throat and, not looking at her, slowly moved to grab her hand, "But none of that really matters when it just comes down to us and how we feel about each other." Tell me, Akane, what is it that you can't stand about me? What really makes you so against marrying me?"

Akane managed a cough of embarrassment and withdrew her hand from under his palm. Truthfully, there was nothing that she couldn't _stand _about him, but. . .

"Ranma, you know what I don't like. . . ? I hate it when you play with me and my feelings. Those times you joke about me, or when you spend two seconds acting all sensitive just to laugh it up in my face. . . Sometimes, you seem so sincere. . . And then--" He interrupted her.

"--Yea, but I'm not like that now." He said eagerly, grabbing hold of her hands and sounding as though every problem she might have had was easily solved.

She shook herself free of him, stood up, and said, ". . . And, somehow, that is just _so _much worse," and she walked back out of the dojo, leaving him alone.

Akane found her way back inside her home and quickly managed to dash the staircase to the second floor before anyone could corner her and ask her exactly when she was planning to "okay" the wedding that was already being planned by her and Ranma's fathers. She opened the door to the bathroom and drew herself some hot water before removing the clothes she was wearing, placing them in the laundry basket, and climbing into the thankfully spacious tub. Then she rested her head against the base and tried to think. . .

It was still barely evident, all that had happened the day before. She remembered yesterday morning quite clearly for the most part. In Home Economics, the girls had worked in groups of four to make a chocolate cake. After Akane's group was finished, the sensei had come by, taken a quick slice, managed to tell them they'd gotten a seventy-one percent due to their effort for the day's mark, and then collapsed right there. By the time the woman had been dragged to the Nurses Office, the class was almost over, so Akane had packed up her groups entire cake (which her friends had gladly given her, instead of taking their quarter share, claiming that she could use it to impress upon Ranma how much she'd improved in the art of cooking) and left to find her fiancé so that she could convince him of telling her that her recipe was satisfactory at worst.

But, contrary to her hopes, Ranma had wasted no time in disappearing upon the sight of her running towards him with the baked good in her hands. Straight after, P-chan had shown up and, noticing how down she looked, tried to make her feel better by eating it in place of her fiancé. He seemed intent on swallowing it all in one bite, however, and at the first chance he had to actually taste the food, it ended up propelling him to run as far as his little paws could carry him. . . Or, well, _she _had never found him afterwards (which reminded her; she had to look for him as soon as possible). However, her pet's engrossed desire to please her had left her with only the smallest of slivers left over, and she'd packed it up and hidden it in her bag just in time for her afternoon classes to start.

Then, later, after she had taken to ignoring Ranma for almost four hours (which she knew he couldn't stand), he'd come up to her and offered to take her out to get an afternoon snack once the dismissal bell had rung to make up for what he'd done. Accepting his offer, they met outside the classroom and walked silently around town until they arrived at one of the last placed she'd expected to go to. It was the Nekohatan.

Of course, suspicious as she always was when it came to Ranma leading her in the direction of another girl who was so fond of him, Akane had complained, but all statements she'd made had had next-to-no impact on Ranma, and they were quickly stifled as they entered the restaurant since she didn't want to cause a scene.

However, soon, even that thought had been wiped clear from her mind once they sat down, placed their orders with an over-affectionate Shampoo (at which point Akane continually had to grasp the seat of her stool to remain cool) and he told her that he'd found out about her cake being wrangled from her grasp by her "greedy little pet". As they sat there and began to clear their plates, she just happened to mention offhandedly that it wasn't too late since she'd spared a final piece and he'd twitched and offered a weak, almost handsome smile, said something along the lines of how lucky that was, and had taken off before she'd so much as blinked. This, of course, was after he'd cleared his plate and before they'd gotten the bill, so she was stuck paying, which meant the loss of almost her entire week's allowance. That also reminded her that she needed to get Ranma to pay her back since it was supposed to be his treat. . . but it probably wouldn't be that hard if he was as in love with her as he seemed.

Anyway, soon after he was gone was when she started feeling off. . . Shampoo had hopped over and eagerly slammed a receipt onto the table. Furiously, Akane withdrew her wallet and shoved over one thousand yen into the Amazon girl's hands, muttering about how she was going to kill a certain pig-tailed hentai later on.

"Oh; so Shampoo's Airen already dump you? Aiya! That so wonderful!" The waitress leapt into the air with glee.

"He. . . he did not! He's. . . too much of a coward to admit who he wants to be with, even if it means finally setting our parents straight." Perfectly fine with ranting at everyone, Akane collapsed lazily into her seat with her face in her palm, "Selfish baka. . . He just doesn't get it. And I worked so hard to bake this for him, too!" And, with that, she whipped out the chocolate cake and sat it on the table.

There was hardly ever a time that Shampoo had looked at Akane without fury or her catty grin, but this one passed the green light test. It was like the Amazon actually _sympathized _with her.

"Shampoo be right back. You no go." And the waitress hopped back behind the counter, leaving the many costumers who'd raised their hands for service fuming in their seats.

Of course, "right back" turned out to be almost twenty minutes later. The only thing that kept Akane from leaving was Shampoo's expression from before. It made her. . . curious, she supposed, as to the Chinese girl's reason for keeping her there. Then Shampoo trounced back with a plate of pork buns in her hand, steaming and smelling something deliciously potent.

"You eat, okay?" She gave a perfectly friendly smile and turned on her heel to leave but Akane shook her head.

"Gomen; I can't afford this right now. Not until Ranma pays me back." The youngest Tendo daughter picked up her bag to leave.

"Oh. . . No have to pay. Is on house." Akane lifted an eyebrow in slight suspicion so Shampoo continued, "Is. . . new recipe. Need plenty of opinion." And so the raven-haired martial artist shrugged, took a seat, and picked up one of the three buns, took a bite, chewed, and swallowed.

It turned out, however, that she should have been just a bit more suspicious after all. She had only taken in one and a half of the total on her plate when something strange rumbled deeply in her chest and the world around her started changing. . . Well, the people were the same, the whole world, really. . . But everything seemed to permeate with some sort of colored aura. There were a lot of blues and whites, some yellows, and her own was a bright rosy pink. . .

Akane, still currently sitting in the bath at home in nuke warm water, opened her eyes and stood up, pulling the drain stopper and wrapping a towel around herself. She sighed, and turned to leave the bath; she did remember more than that. . . but if she were to stop long enough to think about all of the embarrassing things she'd done while under the spell. . . she might just experience the urge to hang herself.

So she quickly left the bathroom, dried herself off, got dressed in the changing room right beyond, and, clad in pajama's, headed down the hallway to her bedroom. Upon entering and closing the door, her eyes grew wide with a furious fire at the sight of Ranma sitting on her bed, awaiting her return.

"Wha-what the heck do you think you're doing in my room this late at night?" She sputtered, almost twitching. He may have been totally and obsessively in love with her, but, well, if he thought that he was getting _that _from her. . . he sure as Hell had another thing coming.

"We're supposed to be wed soon, right? If we're just as soon to be man and wife, then shouldn't we be sleeping in the same room?"

The vein in her temple throbbed painfully in retaliation to her fiancé's comment. He really _had _lost it, hadn't he. . . ?

Akane subtlety side-stepped by her bedroom door and grabbed hold of her boken, hiding it behind her back just in case. Then she took a couple of steps in the direction of her bed where Ranma was still sitting quite comfortably.

"Ranma, why don't you tell me. . . How long has it been considered a law that two betrothed teenagers have to share a bed?" He quirked an eyebrow irritatingly at her and she yelled aloud, holding up her wooden sword and attempting to beat him over the head with it, but his reflexes were heightened enough to easily enable his dodge out of the way.

"Same _bed_. . . ? Who said _anything _about that? Akane, I would _never _be the one to put you into that position. . ." He said affectionately, yet with a sample of his old humor, leaping onto the windowsill as she attempted to side-swipe his head like a golf ball.

"Then why are you even here, you hentai?" Akane shouted, throwing her boken aside and placing her hands on her hips, "This isn't compromising to you, is it? Because I've got news for you, Ranma, I may have automatically assumed the worst when I came in and saw you sitting here like this, but it's not like I'm the only one crazy enough to do so. A million other teenage girls would, too!"

"I guess you make a valid point. Demo, there you go thinking the worst of me again. Didn't I tell you earlier that I'm not like that anymore?" When she didn't answer, he smiled and continued, "That reminds me, what would you like for lunch tomorrow, my love?" He looked at her adoringly and she removed her gaze from him, "Oh, and do you want me to get started on your laundry now or should I just stand guard here in case Happosai tries to break in and take advantage of--"

"--Don't you ever, ever, _ever _touch my clothes! Even if it's to pat them down because they're on fire; I don't care, let them burn! And what do you think I am? Helpless? I can handle Happosai myself; I don't need you playing bodyguard!"

"So, that's a 'no' on the possibility of Latin cuisine?" Ranma asked her, not listening to her berating arguments.

"Get OUT!" Akane screamed and she pulled her fist back and flung it into his face, sending him crashing through the window and flying across the nightly starlit skies of Nerima.

"You always did have the best right-hook!" Was his only comment as he vanished beyond the clouds.

OoOoO

**Notes **- Now we're back on track. Two updates in two weeks; that's how a short-lined fic like Herbal Remedies should be, shouldn't it? Anyway, please expect another update next week. Hopefully. After all, I already have the next four chapter written up in my notebook already; all that I have to do is type them up and do a bit of research on the Japanese titles for Ranma and Ryouga's main attacks. . . Unless one of you wonderful, wonderful readers/reviewers wants to help me. The ones I'm talking about are "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" and "Breaking Point". I almost had them, but then I had to give Silvie-chan her DVD's back, and I can't get online often enough to look for them anywhere else. Well, if one of you knows, please pass the knowledge onto me. . . I plan to use it well. . . I promise. . .

Anyway, all reviews that don't say my style and idea's suck will be greatly appreciated. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Why would I be kidding about one of the most important things in the world? Reviews are what keep me breathing everyday. . . ! Not that that's a very healthy way to live, but still. . . Yea. . . So, review, please, and look forward to the next chapter, which should (hopefully) be up in a week, unless I can't type it up in time, or if I end up going home, or if I end up needing the Japanese titles for those two techniques mentioned above and have yet to find them.

See ya!


	4. Puddle of Mud

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad…

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title **- Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Four **- "Puddle of Mud"

**Summary **- It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance. Kind of. :P

OoO

The next morning, Akane woke up and rose from her covers with a sense of dread at the thought that it was a school day. And a school day meant that she would have to go out in public with Ranma. . . freaky-and-obsessively-in-love-with-her Ranma. . . Somehow, that was nowhere near as flattering as it should have been.

Yawning and allowing herself a good stretch, Akane unhooked her daily uniform from the hanger suspended from her door, and grabbed a towel and her soap bucket, heading for the bath. Upon opening her door, however, she ran into a little problem. . .

"R-Ranma? What are you doing in the hallway? And right outside my room, no less!" She yelled, nudging him awake with her foot since her arms were full. He awoke from his slouching position and looked up at her, revealing two very droopy eyes.

"Oh, my Akane! Ohayo!" He said, leaping forward and latching onto her waist. Akane contained the urge to scream and kick him away with the constant reminder that this was not the real Ranma and it wasn't his fault. Finally, he released her and offered an explanation, "Jiji-hentai tried to get into your room in the middle of the night, assuming that you'd be too exhausted from beating me around the head to fend for yourself. Luckily, I was waiting here to tackle him just in case."

"Oh, well. . . arigatou." She fumbled in reply, ". . . But I could have handled him on my own!" She finished, stomping off to the bath.

"You're welcome, kawaii fiance! Aishiteru!" He called after her and she waved back at him in point of ending the conversation, closing the bath door with a snap, "Okay, you take a shower first and I'll finish getting your laundry off of the clothes line!"

In the middle of removing her shirt, Akane halted, her face turning red in fury and embarrassment. Surely, it _had _to be a joke. Ranma would _never _dare to be stupid enough to touch her dresses, shirts, shorts, uniforms, or. . . underwear. . . He _had _to be smarter than that. . . Or had he really lost the will to live. . . ?

But even as she went through the clothes from yesterday, which were still sitting innocently in the laundry basket, and which should have also contained all of her things from yesterday as well, school and training, she knew that he must have.

Quickly, she threw her clothes back on and, forgetting to bathe, tore from the bathroom and jumped down the stairs, crossing the main room where her father, Genma, and Kasumi already sat, and leaping onto the dew-dashed grass out back.

Before she'd even allowed herself a chance to stand straight, she flung herself at Ranma, tackling him to the ground.

"Ranma! How. . . dare. . . you. . . !" She seethed breathlessly as he lay there beneath her, speechless and confused, and holding her bra in his hand. Seeing red, she shrieked, "Give me that! Don't you ever, ever, _ever _touch my things again! Do you hear me? If you do, I'll - I'll--"

"--That's right, Akane, take the initiative! Go on, then!" She heard her father's familiar tone from the background, and her scarlet-laced vision dissipated into reality.

And reality was mocking her with the acknowledgement that she was in the backyard in the early morning, pinning her fiancé to the ground; her fiancé who, despite being much stronger than her and currently having recovered from the shock of her throwing him down, was not attempting to get her off of him. And the shock of all this was enough to cause any lingering anger she'd held before to vanish and be replaced by a crimson flush that swept over her face entirely.

"Why, Akane, I didn't know that you were that type of--" Ranma started.

"--Finish that comment and I'll. . . go out on a date with Ryouga!" Of course, that was really no way for her to make a come-back in a normal argument, but seeing as Ranma was so in love with her. . .

"No. . . ! You wouldn't dare, would you? Not when I'm here right now, loving you this much!" He whimpered childishly and tightened his hold on her waist.

"Get. . . get off of me!" She squirmed, turning red again.

"Well, forgive me for saying so, but aren't you the one on top of me. . . ?" He asked with a slightly boyish grin.

". . . We have to get ready for school. . . ! We only have ten minutes!" She cried out, shocked, as she managed to glance at her watch, "Kasumi-oneechan, could you finish this laundry for us? Ranma. . . drop the bra and let's go. We still have to eat breakfast. . . !" She mumbled embarrassedly as the two of them walked past their fathers.

"Your lunches are on the table next to the front door!" Kasumi called after them.

By the time they were finished eating and ready to go, Ranma had attempted to feed her, asked her if she wanted him to polish her shoes, and tried to hold her hand four times.

"Stop it!" She said, slapping his arm so that he pulled it back after trying to take hold of her for the fifth time, "Look, Ranma, I know you might not be able to help it, but. . ." She sighed as they passed the point where he would usually leap onto the fence he always walked along, but today he was still busily staring at her as he strolled at her side, ". . . try and keep your distance today, okay? After yesterday, well, if I know Furinkan High School students, then the word about us has already spread to the end of the district and back again. Anyway, just try not to. . . smother me so much, okay? And keep your hands to yourself!" She repeated, smacking him away again as he tried to make another move on her.

"Understood, Akane, _my love_." He stated in a creepy uber-romantic tone.

"Oh, and after school today, I plan to go and look for P-chan. . . he looked a bit. . . sick. . . the last time I saw him, a couple of days ago. I don't want your help, though, so you'll have to go home or out somewhere without me." He gave her a puppy-dog face, but she turned her head to avoid it, "C'mon, you know that you two don't get along very well, and he's kind of really protective of me and who I give my attention to, so your. . . behavioral issues won't help any."

She supposed that she would have expected him to fight more, but he merely smiled and turned away.

If that's what you want, then--"

"--Well, it is!" She shouted confidently. But why was she suddenly angry at him? Nothing good ever came of being angry over nothing. . .

Ranma finally got the chance to succeed in grabbing hold of her hand and, sighing, she allowed him to keep his grasp on it. It just wasn't worth messing with, and nothing she said or did seemed to deter his loving figure anyway.

Two seconds later, however, the calm of the moment was broken by a familiar shout.

"Ranma Saotome, how dare you besmirch the lovely Akane Tendo with your touch!" Kuno stated confidently, his boken held high above his head as he plowed furiously through the groups of students entering the schoolyard, "For your crimes against her hospitable beauty and our fate to be together, I shall--" He was cut short by Ranma's foot smashing him in the face.

Akane sighed, almost in relief; at least one thing was familiar about his new attitude.

"Now, you listen here, Kuno-baka. . ." He started, his eyes burning with crackling anger, ". . . and this goes for the rest of you hentai as well! Akane Tendo is my rightful fiancé and I'm in love with her!"

"N-nani. . . ?" Akane asked, horrified at his speech, "No! Shut up!"

But Ranma had every intention of going on.

"Any of you who might have a problem with it can answer to me! And if you plan to try and take it up with Akane, herself, fine; just be sure to expect my foot up your--"

"--It's not true, not true, I tell you!" Akane shrieked as everyone began murmuring around her.

"So, for future reference, don't disturb our relationship, otherwise, I'll probably have to kill you!" Suddenly, his furious demeanor vanished and a happy smile returned, "Okay? Now, c'mon, Akane, or homeroom will start without us," he finished, although she wasn't listening to him anyway.

"I swear, it's not true! No, really, don't believe a thing he says; it's not his fault. He's sick, er, hurt - hit himself upside the head yesterday. . . He hasn't been the same since. . ." She was reassuring everyone.

"Ranma!" Another voice shouted, sounding deathly cold.

"Ran-chan!" Ukyou's voice rung out.

She, a newly revitalized Kuno, and now Ryouga charged Ranma as one, knocking their weapons, fists, and feet against any part of his body that they could reach. This was the one thing that finally gained Akane's attention, and she somehow managed to convince herself to help her fiancé out, even after all of the damage he'd caused.

"Matte ou, you three! Attacking him all at once isn't fair! If you want a challenge, then let me get in this, too!" She yelled in his defense, immediately gaining their attention, along with every other organism with eyes and / or ears in a five mile radius. She turned pink but shook it off, taking a sturdy fighting stance.

Fortunately, none of them felt that she was the person worth blaming this situation on, even Ukyou, who was looking downright furious at Ranma's words.

Ranma, grinning broadly at the thought of Akane defending his outburst of affection for her, quickly leapt at her, grabbing a hold of her waist.

"Oh, Akane, I knew that you'd come around! Now we can finally start talking about the wedding ceremony, and the kids, and the dog, and all of the other wonderful things to do with our life together!" Before any of the former members of the opposing party could separate the two teenagers, Akane took hold of her fiancé's collar and threw him over her shoulder, sending him flying into the ground about thirty feet away.

"Who the heck do you think I'm marrying, baka? And how many times do I have to tell you to stop grabbing me like that? Get a hold of yourself and listen to me. . ." She breathed deeply as she rounded on him again, getting close enough to make positive that he was awake and paying attention to her, ". . . I don't. . . I don't feel like. . . not for. . ." She fumbled, somehow not able to say it the way she'd planned, "Just. . . stop, okay, Ranma? Then maybe you'll live to see age seventeen." And, finally, with the ringing of the school bell, the crowd began to disperse, flocking into the building for Homeroom.

Avoiding the expressions and muttering of all of those around her, Akane continued walking as though nothing had just happened.

"She has such a courageous, loving heart, and her voice is so beautiful. . ." Ranma sighed devotedly from behind her, and she quickened her step, ignoring when Ryouga reappeared beside the Saotome boy and beat him soundly upside the head.

Morning classes went by rather strangely for Akane; or, rather, the transition from classroom to classroom was strange. Every time Akane exited one room and began walking down the hallway to another, she would catch a glimpse of Ryouga or Kuno sneaking glances at her progress from behind a potted plant or through the windows.

Ukyou, too, was acting a bit differently. As Akane would make a move and Ranma would always join her (which caused some real issues when the Tendo girl tried to go to the bathroom during third period), Ukyou was suddenly compelled to glue herself to the very small space between them, which, somehow, Akane found relieving and aggravating at the same time.

When lunchtime came around, Akane took advantage of the headache that'd been pulsing in her head all day long and decided to visit the Nurses Office. She soon realized this was a mistake, as Ranma became so worried about her health that he carried her there in his arms in front of everyone, telling her things like "not to worry" and "our love for one another will get us through anything". And just when she'd thought she'd escaped him because one of the Nurses rules was 'Patient Privacy', she found out that the student attendant was a fan of their relationship.

"Oh, it's you two! Wow, I'd heard you finally told each other how you felt. . . Please be sure to take things at the right pace and enjoy your time together!" The woman stated in a motherly tone, patting Ranma on the shoulder before drawing the curtain closed around Akane's bed and slipping out to eat her lunch.

"Ugh, could you stop looking at me like that, onegai?" The girl asked her fiancé as he kneeled beside her, his face about half a foot from hers. She was getting very annoyed by his 'constant vigilance' persona, "No, really, you're getting on my nerves!"

"I can't help it! I'm worried about you, my lovely, kawaii fiancé. What with this sudden headache. . . Perhaps we should go home and tend to you there--"

"--And stop calling me that! Whatever happened to kawaiikune, waistless, built-like-a-brick, macho, manly, uncoordinated, and all of that other stuff?" She yelled at him, hurriedly sitting up to add incentive to her fiery reply, but Ranma quickly pushed her back down to the comfort of her pillow, "And why is it you think I have a headache, anyway? You, and everything else that's going on is driving me crazy. . . !"

Ranma, who seemed to have a response to this, immediately replied, "At least you don't have to worry about P-chan, though; at least you know he's alright." There was a wide, almost oblivious smile on his face.

"P-chan. . . ? Nani? How am I supposed to know if he's okay? Come to think of it, how do you know?" Her voice seemed to be getting louder as she pressed the subject and Ranma, for once not intending to reveal Ryouga's secret, began to draw back.

"Er, ano. . . that is to say. . . I suppose it's just a feeling. . ."

Now, Ryouga's position didn't mean the world to Ranma at the moment, and definitely not nearly as much as Akane's did. . . and it was undoubtedly obvious that she would be upset after learning of her pet's true identity, which was something Ranma would never allow if he could help it.

Of course, before he _could _help it, Ryouga, not aware that Ranma was - in a way - trying to help him, came out of nowhere, pummeling him furiously over the head and then turning embarrassedly to Akane.

"Ano, Akane-chan, koonichiwa. . ." He said, averting his eyes and stepping on Ranma's hands as the better martial artist attempted to pick himself up off the ground, "I hope you're feeling better. . . Do you need anything? A drink? Some medicine? Should I go get the nurse? How about I go buy some--"

"--Some strange product from Kyoto? Not right now, P-chan!" Ranma said aggravatedly, kicking at the eternally lost boy (who skillfully avoided it). He seemed thoroughly pissed at the fact that his doting on Akane had been suspended.

"Who are you calling P-chan?" Ryouga shouted, cracking his knuckles and raising his fists, using his well-begotten speed and catching the pigtailed boy in the gut, but it didn't really seem to affect him.

"P-P-P-chan!" Ranma mocked in a sing-song tone.

"I said--" Ryouga's reply was interrupted by Akane.

"You two, I've had enough! Ranma, I'm disappointed in you! How many times have I told you not to pick on Ryouga-kun! And you, Ryouga-kun, well. . . for someone who seems to be so genuinely worried about my condition, you aren't showing it much. And what about my lil' P-chan? Ryouga-kun, do you know something about him. . . ?" Akane broke off mid-statement as a look of recognition dawned open her face, ". . . Ie. . . Don't tell me. . ."

"It - it's not really. . . I mean, Ano. . ." Ryouga fumbled; Ranma continued smirking in the background.

". . . You're trying to tell me. . . that you found my P-chan and took him home for me? Oh, arigatou!" And she threw her arms around him in the element of the moment, turning him to a puddle of toned, blubbering nothingness.

"Hey!" Ranma shouted, losing himself and pulling the still brain-dead Ryouga and the thoroughly relieved Akane apart by their collars.

Then, quite suddenly, the Tendo daughter turned to him and held him by the hands, leaving him in the same position as his closest rival.

"And you, Ranma. . . You were going to tell me about this before Ryouga showed up, weren't you? Arigatou. . . you were right. . . Not having to worry about my P-chan is a great thing. . ." She finished, letting go of her fiancé and turning to face the window beyond her bed, allowing both love-struck boys a chance to recover.

Then she spun around to face them again, a heavenly kind and warm smile spreading over her face, "I feel a lot better now!"

And both male martial artists were right back where they started.

OoO

**Notes **- Hello! Er… well, actually, I don't have much to say to start off. . . I guess that I should thank the two people who sent me the Japanese titles of Ranma's "Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire" and Ryouga's "Breaking Point" attacks. You have been very helpful in that, now, as long as I copy those titles down for when I'm typing this fic up at home, I can keep updating every week. I'm sure that even those who don't like the Japanese translations I'm doing can thank you for that.

What's more, happy belated Christmas and New Year! Yea, sure, I could have said that during the chapter updates that I posted around the Xmas time, but I figured, 'Why follow the trend? Let's forget to tell the readers Happy Holidays until after they're over!' Lol. . . Well, it sounded good at the time. . .

Also, let me just take the time to thank said reviewers for their courageous fishing appetites. Er, that is to say. . . This is my first Ranma ½ fic, and, therefore, I really didn't expect to get any reviewers for it, at least, not as many as I have been getting. I'd like to thank all of those who've stuck their toes back into the water time and time again to check out my works in new categories, those of which I obviously don't know much about, and those of other authors who do the same. We know that, starting off, we can't be thought of as much, but that you read our well-thought-out idea's nonetheless means a lot. So thank you.

Oh, I'm on a roll now, aren't I? I started out with nothing to say and soon enough, I'd filled up three well-sized paragraphs yakking. Amazing. Anyway, I hope to receive at least seven reviews (as that seems to be the minor limit for every chapter before this) and I'll see you all next week, preferably Tuesday or Wednesday.

Until then. . .


	5. Ironic

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad…

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title **- Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Five **- "Isn't It Ironic?"

**Summary **- It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance. Kind of. :P

OoO

Two and a half hours later, Akane was walking alone, having lost Ranma and Ryouga among the throng of students leaving Furinkan High during the afternoon dismissal. Her fiancé had vanished of his own accord, quite mysteriously actually, but it wasn't that she cared. She was rather pleased to have some time to herself, and now that she knew her P-chan was safe, she was going to make the best of the afternoon that she'd gained, and do something of the utmost importance.

Akane sighed; it was a wonderful thing to be perfectly alone for once. . . She had to admit, she was definitely missing the rude, abrasive, and insensitive Ranma. . . Then again, when your fiancé starts to drool all over your lap, anything's pretty much considered better.

Shaking her head at the thought, she quickened her step. She had somewhere that she had to go. . . There was no way to avoid it at this point.

Just as she had finished convincing herself and was ready to turn a corner and head into town, a loud whinnying sounded from behind her and she pivoted on the spot, recognizing the cry.

"Oh, P-chan!" She said ecstatically, picking up the black pig into her arms and holding him close, "Daijobou ka? I haven't seen you in a couple of days now. . ." she smiled brightly at him, "I bet Ryouga treated you well when he found you. . . Not like Ranma. . ." She growled and then made her way down the intended road, "I should try and find some way to thank him. . . but for now. . ."

Just as P-chan was settling himself comfortably in a daydream of the possible ways she could do just that, Akane took off at a run, forcing him along for the ride.

It took her ten minutes to zigzag around town and appear in front of the Nekohatan, which was a record-breaking dash, even when compared to the hungriest of customers. But Akane wasn't hungry. . . at least, not for food.

"Shampoo. . . !" She yelled upon making it inside the packed restaurant, not bothering with the embarrassment she'd normally feel at all of the heads turning confusedly and anxiously in her direction, "Where the heck are you. . . ?" She finished furiously.

Shampoo hopped out of nowhere, holding a large tray of family platters in her hand. Not showing any type of fear or anger at the Tendo girls temper, she quickly stuffed a large dumpling in her mouth.

"Now you be quiet. I busy working today. Come back after we close." She nodded towards the main entrance before turning on her heel. Akane quickly spat the food from her mouth; after all, the last time Shampoo had given her something, she'd ended up becoming a toneless parrot, spouting words of love for Ranma. Then she threw out her empty hand and grabbed onto the Amazon's apron, forcing her to a stop and sending the tray she was holding above her head to the ground, "Aiya!"

Suddenly, an open hand appeared beneath the fallen tray, an elderly, mangled hand, and balanced it perfectly three feet above the ground.

"Go on to the back and tell Akane what she wants to know, child. I can handle things out here." Cologne said in her dry, croaking tone, a calmly confident expression on her face as all of the customers around the three women gave a long and enthusiastic applause.

"Great-grandmother. . . ? Hai!" Shampoo replied, taking off and leaping behind the counter. Akane followed after, easing P-chan carefully alongside her. Just beyond the kitchen stood a door left ajar and Shampoo's hair whipped out of sight from within the room beyond, so Akane followed swiftly in the girl's wake.

After shutting the door, the youngest Tendo daughter took a seat on an upturned crate in what appeared to be the main storage room.

"So. . . you back to normal?" Shampoo said immediately from her right and she turned just in time for the long-haired waitress to appear right in front of her face, "Is about time, but. . . how you do it?" She prodded the Japanese girl in the cheek.

Akane swatted the hand away and turned crimson at the thought of the words Ranma had said to reawaken her from the spell. But she didn't want to think about that now. She didn't want to think about that _ever_. . . Then again, Shampoo _had _asked.

"He's acting weird." Akane said instead, and her eyes met Shampoo's for just a moment, "And I know you have something to do with it. You did something to me a couple of days ago and I ended up falling in love with him. . . Then yesterday we came back and you must have done the same thing to him. . ."

"Yesterday. . ." Shampoo quoted, her eyes widening, "He tell you he love you?" She asked, looking suddenly appalled, "Things go wrong, then?" She finished in horror.

"They did, did they? What were you trying to do? Make him fall in love with you? It's like I thought, isn't it? I was like some experiment, a guinea pig for whatever potion you had and since it worked the first time - it made me fall in love with Ranma - you decided to do the same thing to him - that is, you tried to make him fall in love with you! But the plan backfired and now I'm stuck with the results!" Akane shouted, out of her mind with anger so that she began crushing P-chan against her stomach.

"Nani? What you talking about? You is. . ." Shampoo leant backward as Akane closed in on her. She had been ready to amend all of the holes in the younger girls accusation when it suddenly hit her - Akane had no idea that Ranma's confession of love was real. "You is. . . exactly right. I mean to make Ranma fall in love with me and it go wrong. . . You want know how to make things better?"

Akane nodded her head vigorously and finally took a chance to sit back on her crate, allowing P-chan a chance to breathe properly and to pay attention to the topic at hand as well.

"All you have do is tell Ranma you no love him, and he go back to normal," Akane looked ready to interrupt, perhaps to inquiry about Ranma's telling her he _did _love her allowing the same spell to be broken, but Shampoo raised her voice just loud enough so that she could continue freely, "Unless. . . you _do _love Ranma and spell is convenient for you?" This comment affected Akane so thoroughly that she didn't even notice the catlike grin growing on the Amazon warrior's face.

"Me. . . love him? Are you joking? Never. . . ! And how dare you insinuate that I do, let alone that I'd rather like to keep him the way he is to suit my needs! You have no idea how willing I am to tell him I don't feel that way for him so that I can get him back to normal!" With that shout, Akane leapt up from her seat and walked swiftly out of the room without looking back.

Shampoo raised herself to her feet, too, that grin she'd been wearing so subtlety before growing to its widest limits.

It really was just too easy to manipulate things the way she wanted. Akane's pride was so strong that she'd never admit to herself or even consider another method of getting the former Ranma back. And once she told him that she didn't love him, the spell would be broken and he'd forget all about his feelings for her, giving Shampoo a second chance to win his heart.

As stated before, it was all too easy.

Akane left the Nekohatan without a word to anyone and began to walk home. . . only to be stopped almost immediately by a stern-looking Ukyou wielding a huge spatula.

"I want to know. . . what is there between you and my Ran-chan?"

"Oh, not you, too. . ." Akane mumbled and, hoping to clear the air, she asked the okonomiyaki chef to join her for a walk.

The two girls and the black pig took a detour through the park; all was silent in the meantime, while they distracted themselves with the scenery. Had it not been for the topic at hand, it all would have been very peaceful.

"Now, Akane, why don't you tell me why my fiancé has glued himself to you by the hip?" Ukyou asked, clearing her throat and looking somber.

"Look. . . I know it seemed bad earlier today, but you really have no idea. Ranma's just. . . confused, and lovesick, but it's not really his fault. . ." Akane said, at the same time allowing her eyesight to fall upon her own shoes. That was true. All of the things Ranma had done had not been true, and he'd never intended to do them for her, spellbound or not. He was just as much of a victim as she was. . .

Then, how come she felt so angry with him?

"He's permanently latched himself to you and you're saying it's not his fault? Well, I didn't see any puppet strings immobilizing him, so what do you mean?"

"Look, it's complicated, okay? But I know how to get him back to normal, and that's all that matters. . . Just give me some time and I'll finish this without hurting anybody!" She three her fist confidently into the air just in time for someone to call her name.

"Akane!" Whoever or whatever it was sped towards her so fast that it looked like a blur and, scared for her and P-chan's safety, Akane shot the same fist that had formerly been in the air, forward, hitting the thing in the jaw and stopping it in its tracks.

"Ran-chan!" Ukyou said, rushing between the pigtailed boy and Akane and removing her closed fist from his face, revealed a nasty-looking imprint, "Oh, daijobou ka? Akane, how could you do something so. . . so. . . violent? I mean, I know you're the kawaiikunai fiancé, but. . ."

"That's me, the kawaiikunai fiancé. . ." Akane grumbled, not bothering to make sure that Ranma was alright. She just couldn't help but feel angry at his behavior towards her, even now when she knew it was a spell forced upon him and not his fault.

She turned to leave Ranma to Ukyou's doting and care but she was forced to a stop at the horrific thought that Ranma had once again latched onto her waist.

"Kawaiikunai fiancé, yes, but only as long as you're my kawaiikunai fiancé. . ." He murmured in that uber-affectionate voice.

"Let go. . ." Akane muttered, flexing her fists, aiming to force him off of her, but Ukyou and P-chan got there first.

"You jackass! You don't have to act that way right in front of my face!" The okonomiyaki chef yelled, unsheathing her spatula and knocking him over the head repeatedly. P-chan, meanwhile, began pawing and biting him everywhere he could reach, screeching aloud in his little pig language.

"That's it, Ranma!" Akane shouted, holding him up to her face by the collar, "I'm tired of your acting this way, you hentai! Why do you always have to grab onto my body when you greet me? You're nothing but an obsessive womanizer and I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore!" she finally took a moment to catch her breath, not noticing the captivated stare that Ranma was forcing on her, "You listen to me, okay? I know what's going on here, I know you're under a spell, and I know how to break it! So let's get it over with!" She forced him to face her and, Ukyou and P-chan now waiting patiently for the climax, spoke aloud what she'd been told to do to get him back to normal, "I _don't _love--"

And then there was silence as he pulled her into another kiss, embracing her as she went slack from shock and Ukyou and P-chan screeched so loudly from anger, embarrassment, and confusion that they too lost their footing.

"Saotome. . ." Ukyou growled, the first to recover, and she jumped him from the side, tackling him to the ground. P-chan followed, leaving Akane to stumble to her feet before blinking bemusedly, turning around and simply staggering away, "How dare you do that?" The spatula-wielding female shouted as Akane left them behind with a blank stare on her face.

She found her way home and managed her way inside, avoiding everyone by not saying a word to them, no matter their questions or comments. Ignoring their inquiries allowed enough time for her to escape as peacefully as possible into her bedroom, where she slowly fumbled her way soundlessly inside, shutting the door behind her. She turned to collapse onto her bed. . . and allowed the hostile part of her mind to take over.

Why didn't she tell him what she'd been meaning to say? Why'd he have to kiss her again? Why was she so speechless afterward? Why had she left him to Ukyou and P-chan's wrath? Why was she still thinking about all of this? Why was the sudden truth that it was all a love spell's fault angering her as much as it was? Why did she wish, not for the first time, that Ranma could love her or treat her kindly of his own accord? Why did so many things have to be complicated in her life, let alone in her an Ranma's relationship? Come to think of it, why did she want things between them to go well to begin with. . . ?

Removing her head from her pillow, Akane sighed, then noticed for the first time that there was a damp residue on her pillow case. Furiously, she wiped her eyes and cursed. She was crying? Over this? Over Ranma's annoying indecency towards her. . . ?

"How troublesome. . ." She said, again wiping her eyes and sitting up, deciding that she'd eat dinner, take a bath, and turn in as early as possible.

When she had found enough courage to go back downstairs and face any questions her family would undoubtedly have for her, she did so, only to find Ranma home, looking terribly worse for wear and being bandaged by Kasumi.

"Oh, there you are, Akane. Ranma came back a few minutes ago and, well, he was. . ." She prodded him in the arm and he yelped, then looked up and smiled (or grimaced, he looked so beaten), ". . . but all he did was keep asking for you."

"Me? Why?" Akane questioned, although she obviously had some idea.

"I don't really know. He wouldn't tell anyone how he ended up this way. . . He just asked if you were okay." Kasumi said in a worried tone, then her eyes widened in fear, ". . . Akane, did you two. . . get into a street fight today? Because it's not like you to leave Ranma behind and looking so battered."

"Are you kidding? Of course we didn't!" Akane replied angrily, but she was interrupted by Ranma.

"Akane. . . I think he wanted to make sure you were okay. . ." And Ranma held up his hand, where P-chan was attempting to gnaw his fingers off.

"Ah, P-chan! Gomen nisai; I forgot all about you!" Akane cried out, picking him up into her arms. He became suddenly content to comfort himself in her bosom, which she either didn't notice or didn't find appalling. . . but Ranma did. And, forgetting his injuries, he bounded from the floor, knocking the first-aid kit aside, and attempted to pry the piglet from his fiancé's hold.

"You little hentai!" He growled furiously as he did so.

"Hey; Ranma, leave my P-chan alone!"

"I know P-chan makes you happy, but you just don't understand!" Ranma tried to explain, "Look at the way he's groping you! It just ain't normal!" He finished, pointing accusingly at the little piglet, who bared his teeth in retort.

"Well, you're right. . ." Akane said, and the pigtailed boy was foolish enough for once to believe she was on his side, ". . . It just means that he's really attached to me is all! And you're just. . . crazy to actually try and justify being jealous of him? What do you have against him, huh. . . ?"

As if this was a wake-up call, Ranma dejectedly regained his seat on the floor next to Kasumi, who was attempting to pick up all of the things he'd kicked out of the first-aid kit earlier on.

"I've got nothing against him. . . At least, not anything that prevented me from bringing him back to you after you left us behind to fight each other, right?" He finished, crossing his arms and hissing in pain as he accidentally ran a hand over a cut that P-chan had given him during said fight.

"Nani. . . ? Oh, you're right. . . Arigatou, Ranma. . ." Akane said, sitting down beside him and laying one of her hands on top of his. P-chan's growled faltered at this and he whimpered disconsolately. Akane, noticing this, smiled kindly at him, Awe, poor lil' baby. . . How about I let Kasumi-oneechan give you a bath while I stay here and finish wrapping Ranma's wounds, okay?"

Horrified, eyes widening, P-chan struggled uselessly as Akane handed him over to Kasumi. What would happen if she were to find out about his true identity? The thought of Akane's fury at learning about Ryouga and her loving pet being one and the same terrified him. . . But what could he do? In exchange for absolute cuteness, he'd had to give up all of the mortal strength he'd gained over the years of his training.

"My, he sure is excited tonight, isn't he, Akane? Hopefully the nice, hot water will comfort him and do him some good. . ." And Kasumi began to lead him from the room.

Ranma, who seemed not to have been paying attention to this conversation until now, leapt up, taking initiative.

"Ie, I'll do it. I think the best thing for me now is to clean these cuts, anyhow. We can just wrap them after I'm done, ne, Akane?" He asked, looking thoroughly delighted about the time they'd end up spending together.

"Ano. . . hai. . ." Akane shrugged. She had to eat dinner anyway, and do homework, so it was in perfect rhythm with her schedule.

As Ranma turned and led the still-struggling P-chan away, he could hear Akane asking Kasumi where their fathers were. Now, he could have spent about half-an-hour worrying over the probability that they were going to try and pull off one of their crazy schemes (those which mostly included himself, Akane, and a wedding chapel), but seeing as he was about to enjoy an nice, comfortable, and hot bath. . .

"I'd much rather spend my time thinking about my lovely Akane. . ." He said to himself with misty eyes, removing his Chinese-clothed shirt. He ignored P-chan's squirming, which had increased tenfold after his comment, and entered the bathroom to turn on the faucets, "You know, I just saved your neck, baka. . . You should be thanking me at the very least. . ." He finished with a glance at the pig, who was now trying to bruise every part of his body that he could reach.

In an effort to removed the annoying pet from his arm, Ranma dunked him into the tub. . . and waited only two seconds before Ryouga came back up, gasping for air.

"Ranma, how dare you--!" He started before Ranma threw the small tub usually reserved for holding his soap and things in his face, "I. . . I mean. . . arigatou. . ." Ryouga mumbled regrettably, not meeting the pigtailed boy's eyes.

"Hai; it was no problem." Ranma smirked as he doused his hair in hot water and went to squirt some shampoo into his palm, "But you could, you know, repay me by leaving Akane and I alone for awhile. . . a _long _while. . . Say, the rest of our lives?"

"Phht! And do what? Permit you to try and fool Akane-chan with your nonsense act of affection in my absence?" Ryouga countered with a smirk of his own, ignoring Ranma's confused glance, "I suppose that doesn't matter anyway. . . She knows what's wrong with you. She went to see Shampoo today after school; did you know that?"

Ranma's eyes widened at this, but the shock only lasted a moment before he went back to washing out his hair.

"Really? Well, it can only be a good thing. Now she'll have to face the facts and admit how she really feels about me, and without a spell on her, mind you." He finished confidently, then, as he filled his small tub with clear, hot water, "It looks like you're going to have to find yourself another Bosom-Buddy."

"And why would you think that? Akane-chan plans on telling you that she doesn't love you, just like that Shampoo said to do. And good riddance, too, otherwise you'd be toying with her emotions forever. . ." He scoffed as he said this, "At least we know it's just a flimsy love potion. . ."

"Nani?" Ranma's eyes widened again, and this time, the expression seemed to stick, "What are you talking about? This isn't a love potion! This is--"

"Ranma! Are you still in there?" A voice called out loudly from the hall, and both teenagers heard the stomping of a pair of feet rushing towards the bathroom.

"Quick, get down! As far as anyone knows, I'm in here with my fiancé's strange excuse for a pet!" Ranma yelled, shoving Ryouga underwater just in time for the sliding door to crash open, revealing. . .

OoOoO

**Notes **- Thanks to those who've read the above chapter! As most of you who have been returning for every update should know, I've been trying as hard as possible to post a chapter every week since I've had the chance to use a computer and get to the library when needed to post. It's really all thanks to you that this project it continuing in its progress. As I've said a million or so times, this is my first-ever Ranma fic (and possibly my last) and thus, I never expected it to go on for very long, let alone that I'd get so many "rave reviews" telling me that I should continue it.

And now, I ask yet another favor. Well, it's basically a favor that every author asks of their readers, so you should be expecting it. You all have been such a big help, and I know that I can count on you to tell me, once again, what you think of this fic in another review. People like **gladdecease **have graced me with true criticism, telling me of the faults of the fic. It doesn't necessarily mean that I can correct them on the spot, especially because I can only read the reviews on the days I post, and I've already got the first through seventh chapters finished, draft-wise. But if ever there was someone who was intent on pleasing their readers, it'd be me. Lol. So, please, give me everything you've got when you comment.

Oh, gods, I can't believe I just spent two paragraphs on that stupid topic; really, I was just trying to waste time acting like I had something to say to you all that was really worth your time. I do appreciate you all, but hopefully you know that by now and. . . I'm straying _back _into the damned topic again, aren't I? Bugger. Lol.

Until the next update!


	6. Pigs, Scheming Fathers, and Baka Romance

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad…

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title **- Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Six **- "Of Pigs, Scheming Fathers, and Love-Struck Baka!"

**Summary **- It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance. Kind of. :P

OoO

"Quick, get down! As far as anyone knows, I'm in here with my fiancé's strange excuse for a pet!"

As Ranma shoved Ryouga underwater, he could hear the overwhelmingly loud footsteps of some anonymous person rushing to the bath, shouting his name. Ryouga was struggling under his grip, but he was still managing to hold him down.

Suddenly the door swung open and Genma Saotome entered the bath, looking worn and terribly ghastly, "Ranma, come with me! It's--" Of course, it was at this point that Ryouga chose the opportune time to keep himself from drowning.

"Ranma!" He shouted furiously, coughing up excess water from his being forced under, "What the hell was that for? I'm gonna kill. . ." He, too, turned to face the pigtailed boy's suddenly silent father, "Er. . . H - how's it going. . . ?"

"My boy. . ." Genma sighed, pushing his glasses distractedly up the bridge of his nose.

"It - it's not. . . He's. . . P-chan is. . ." Ranma attempted to explain. Ryouga, meanwhile, had gone numb with the lack of excuses.

"My boy. . ." Genma started again, "is this. . . a cry for help?"

"N-nani. . . ?" Ranma started, completely oblivious as to where this was going.

"I mean, I know how you feel about all of those other women chasing you, but. . . what about Akane? How could you possibly turn her away? And for another boy? Oh, where did I go wrong?" Genma wailed, and Ranma felt his temple start pulsing with aggravation, "Do you truly crave to be all-woman so badly that you'd allow yourself to behave so foolishly? Oh, my boy. . . Onegai, is there something your Outo-san can do to change your mind?"

"Well, for starters. . ." Ranma began with a grin on his face, before it suddenly changed to a fierce scowl, "You can get your story right before you accuse me of something!" He shouted, "You know, for one thing, that I'd never cheat on my darling Akane! You know that I love her! I told you that I did! And I'd never--" He jumped high into the air and landed a kick to his fathers face, "--ever--", he wheeled around and punched him in the gut, "--hurt her in any way!" He dropped to his knees and swung his foot under his father's ankles, crippling him and sending him crashing to the ground. Then he stood up again and dusted his hands off while Ryouga, seemingly reacting to the noise yet still in a faraway place, began to mutter feeble retorts and excuses in a strangely high-pitched voice.

"G - good to. . . hear it. . ." Genma stated in a twitchy voice from his spot on the floor.

"Hai," Ranma agreed, securing the towel around his waist, "Now, what was it that you wanted?"

"Ah!" Genma replied, immediately recovering and reaching his feet, "That's right! Ranma, Akane's in trouble!"

"Nani?" The pigtailed boy shouted, looking mortified, before taking off and running from the room at breakneck speed.

"I heard her screaming from her bedroom a few seconds ago! She was screaming for you, Ranma!" The elder man continued, stretching his neck towards the hall so that his son could hear him; then he turned back to Ryouga, who still seemed to be off in a distant plane, and murmured, "Poor sap. . ." before leaving him there to follow in the direction of the youngest Tendo girl's room.

"Akane! Akane? A-kan-e!" Ranma shouted as he ran through the house in nothing but a bath towel. He saw her bedroom door up ahead and ran faster, knowing that the sooner he got there, the sooner he could be sure of what was wrong, "Akane. . . !" He shouted again, knowing it was no use, that she was probably too injured to answer him. . .

. . . It was a miraculous thing, therefore, that she just happened to open her bedroom door a second later, confused as to who was calling her name. Then her eyes widened as she saw Ranma making a beeline for her. Before she could do much of anything in reaction and before he could stop himself, he ended up running straight into her and sending both of them sailing across the threshold and into her room.

It took Ranma a few seconds to remove himself from Akane's torso, either because he couldn't or wouldn't pick himself up off of her. Of course, as soon as he did, he began to look her over for any bruises, cuts, swelling, etc. that she should have gotten, had she been in danger as his father had said. She seemed to be perfectly fine, however; she was still rather confused, and maybe just a bit horrified at the fact that he was almost completely naked, but other than that. . .

"Nani. . . ?" She croaked, her throat completely dry, "Why are you--? What are you--? Where is--?" She couldn't seem to breathe well enough to finish any of these sentences, "I don't. . . I can't. . ." Finally, she gulped and took a chance to catch her breath, "What are you. . . doing here. . . ? You baka-hentai!" She said, slapping him with, what felt like, every ounce of strength she contained.

Ranma recoiled and twisted around just in time to see his father give him a wink and a thumbs-up before shutting the door, blocking it with a series of nailed wooden boards, and then. . .

". . . If those sounds are what I think they are, I'd say my Outo-san is putting a boulder against the door. . ." Ranma said, trying to laugh it up as though it were all a part of some silly prank.

"Oh, no. . . You've gotta be kidding me. . . !" Akane moaned, moving forward and attempting to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge in the least, "Saotome-san, if you don't let us out right now, I'll -- you don't even wanna know what I'll do!" She shouted in fury.

Ranma took a chance to tap her on the shoulder and she turned, ready to slap him again for touching her, but then she saw him pointing silently to her window and grinning confidently. She couldn't help but join him; but as she was currently planning on killing her fiancé's father upon their exit, she turned and tried to give him one last chance.

"Saotome-san! We plan on getting out of here sooner than you think! If you don't let us go willingly and we're forced to use our own means of escape, this won't be the end!" She waited for a few seconds and attempted to open the door again, but it still wouldn't move.

"We won't surrender until the two of you admit your feelings to each other and agree to our terms!" Genma said confidently from the other side.

"Hai! I agree!" Ranma said all-too willingly, raising his hand before turning to Akane, who ignored him.

"Nani? 'We'? 'Our'?" She thought for a moment, then growled, "Outo-san! How could you do this to your daughter? Anyway, we're not agreeing to anything! We want out of here now, or I'm going to do something we'll all regret! Besides, this isn't sensible!" Again, she tried to force the door open, but without much luck.

"Akane, you're being ridiculous, alright?" Soun's voice joined the lot, "You don't understand how simple it is to get us to open the door. . . All you have to do is tell Ranma how you already know you feel for him and we can go from there. This constant struggle with your own emotions is only hurting you, in any case. . . !"

Akane growled and readied her retort but Ranma quietly interrupted.

"C'mon; their plans are always half-baked. Let's just go out the window and you can beat the blood from their veins." He looked ready to please her in any way that he could, even if that meant not hearing what she had to say about him.

She simply nodded and the two quietly tiptoed to the window and Ranma drew the curtains and opened it wide. It would be an easy leap from the ledge to the tree about five feet away.

"I'll go first. . ." He said to her, jumping onto the windowsill. He took off, performing a miraculous leap. . . only to crash instantly into a plate of some form of blockage.

"Nani?" Akane said as Ranma collapsed at her feet.

"Wah hah hah!" Genma said from beyond the door, having obviously known what was going on, "One hundred percent sturdy flexi-plexi-glass! Unbreakable, unshatterable, and unbelievable! You two aren't going anywhere!" He and Soun broke out into annoyingly raucous laughter as Ranma shook off the impact he'd just felt and flinched.

"Ite. . ." He said, gripping his head, and Akane remembered that she was supposed to help him wrap the wounds he'd gained earlier that day, "Well, that was a bit painful. . ."

"Ano. . ." Akane murmured, backing away and sitting on her bed, throwing her quilt at him as he made himself comfortable on the floor, "Cover yourself up and relax; we're going to be here for awhile. . ."

"H - hai. . ." Ranma said, tenderly placing the blanket around his shoulders, ". . . How long do you think _'awhile' _is going to be?"

Knowing that he was asking because of the pain from his many scratches and bruises, Akane sighed for perhaps the hundredth time that hour. She didn't want to have to cope with Ranma's annoyingly distracting behavior, and even though it would only make him spout even more senseless and entrancing quotes of love, she knew that she should do as she'd said and bandage him to his content.

"I'm going to regret this, but. . . in the second drawer of my desk, there's a small box with some antiseptic, aspirin, and gauze wrap. Can you hand it to me. . . ?"

Ranma nodded vigorously and hopped to his right, ripping open the said drawer and pulling out the only item of content, that being a small tin box with a large red addition sign in the center. On the front-side panel was a small tag, which read, 'From: Tofu-sensei, To: Tendo Akane'.

"Nani? Wait a minute. . ." Ranma frowned, promptly withdrawing the box from where Akane was about to grab hold of it, "This was from Tofu-sensei? Why do you have it still?"

"What's it to you? Now hand it over or I won't do a thing for you!" She was quick to lose her temper at the obviousness of Ranma's jealousy towards the doctor.

"It's something to me, clearly, otherwise I wouldn't care to ask! I mean, why are you harboring gifts from another man, let alone one that you've been known to feel affection for. . . ?" He gave a sudden gasp of horror and turned away, looking terrifyingly feminine, ". . . Don't tell me that you. . . you're having an affair. . . ?"

Grabbing a known weapon of choice, Akane turned to beat him over the head. Taken by surprise, he wasn't able to escape the first few impacts, and she succeeded in adding to his total amount of injuries.

"How can I. . . possibly be having an affair. . . when we're not. . . even married. . . ?" She shrieked, very red in the face, "You hentai! Hentai; hentai; hentai!"

Finally, he escaped her, leaping madly into the air, only to find that the folded knot of his towel wasn't as secure as he'd have thought. It began to fall around his knees and she screamed in fury and horror while he attempted to pull it back up.

"Ack! Gomen, gomen!" He tried to laugh it off as a minor occurrence, but Akane wasn't eager to accept that. She didn't even dare to look him in the face as he collapsed gracefully to the floor, sitting sturdy with the towel covering his waist area properly, "Well. . . that was. . . interesting. . ." He stated awkwardly and then, in an offhanded tone, "So, how about we get started on cleaning my cuts?"

"Do it yourself!" She yelled, throwing the tin box carelessly and hitting him directly in the face.

"Ano. . . hai. . ." And he opened the lid and set out to work.

However, ten minutes later, he'd succeeded only in wrapping one of his arms into a thick, elastic cocoon. Akane sighed exasperatedly at the sight of him flinging the said arm around. She was incapable when it came to any type of nursing, but even she had more ability than he was showing. . . Maybe all he needed was an extra pair of hands. . .

Resigning herself to the occupation, she called, "Alright, Ranma; you've convinced me that you're inept when it comes to taking care of yourself. Come over here. . ." Of course, in an effort to wrap a bruised ankle, he'd ended up tying his legs together. He stumbled to his feet, hopped a few times, fell roughly to the floor, and grinned embarrassedly at her. Rolling her eyes at him, she took a stand, "Fine, then; I'll come to you, baka."

She moved forward a few places and collapsed beside him, easily slapping a Band-Aid on his cheek before he could even blink.

"A - arigatou, Akane." He mumbled, for once agreeing to be quite sober, rather than so excited at the thought of her caring for him that she'd have to kill him.

"It's no problem. . ." She murmured now, noticing the content, calming atmosphere around them. It hit her just then that perhaps the barricades around the room weren't so devastating after all. . . It was true that they did trap her an Ranma inside. . . but they also kept everyone else out, dissuading them from constantly spying on the two sixteen year olds, "You tell anyone about this, though, and I'll kill you."

"No problem," Ranma grinned, "I know how to keep a secret. How do you think I've kept you from realizing how much I love you all this time?" The grin, if possible, widened, stretching to the space just short of his ears.

"Not now, baka." She stressed in reply, unwinding the bandages from his ankles and rewrapping them the best she could, "There; at least they're all on the right leg this time."

"Arigatou, again. . . You're the best at healing, no matter what the pain, did you know that. . . ?" He placed an awkward hand overtop hers, and she gave a low, almost shuddery, sigh, for once not inclined to remove his grip, "You make everything in me feel perfectly healthy and alive. . . And I'm not just talking about the physical afflictions. . ."

"Er. . . ano. . ." She finally pulled away, turning to look at anything but the thoroughly enchanting expression on his face. He only seemed to lean forward, as though under strict contract to keep eye contact with her, "Ranma, I. . ."

She what? She thought he was a nice guy, but that it would never work out? She thought he should hurry up and find a way out of the room they were trapped in before it became obvious just how much color was flushing her cheeks? She thought he should know that, though it was strange and painful and crazy, it was also enjoyable to be here alone with him like this. . . ?

It was very hard to believe but, yes, that was it. She hated the fact and she'd never admit it, especially to him, but this was oh-so natural and easy. . . and gratifying, really.

Of course, two seconds later, the moment was spoiled by a ringing shout, that elicited from a pervert, and one who was inclined to find comfort in the bosom of. . .

"Akane-chan!" Happosai hopped excitedly out of nowhere and attempted to grab onto any part of her that he could, but before he'd even gotten the chance, Ranma's elbow appeared suddenly, and impacted with the old man's backside, forcing him face-first into the ground.

"Ne, Jiji, how'd you get in here. . . ?" The pigtailed boy asked offhandedly, as though nothing had just happened. He loosened his grip and Happosai jumped to his tiny feet, looking very teary-eyed.

"Ite. . . why'd you have to hurt me? All I was trying to do was rescue my lovely Akane-chan from the foul clutches of my unlawful students. . ." He gave a very dramatic sigh, "I've got no idea where I went wrong with them. . ." He suddenly looked fierce, and, pointing at Ranma, "And you, Ranma, how could you remain alone in the same room as Akane-chan for this long without being a gentleman and coaxing her into--"

"--You hentai!" Akane interrupted in a growl, then she screamed angrily and sent her foot flying at the old man, kicking him so hard into the air that he ended up crashing though the supposedly indestructible flexi-plexi-glass that their parents had erected overtop her window. Still furious, she turned to Ranma, who looked innocently and blankly back at her.

"Way to go, Akane. . ." He pointed at the broken window, "We proved a flaw in one half of their plan. . . That must mean that," he got to his feet and walked to her door, opening it easily this time and finding a demolished boulder, many stray planks of wood, and their parents twitching horribly on the floor, ". . . Jiji-hentai came through here. C'mon, Akane--" He turned to escort her from the room, but she wasn't there.

Turning back to the hallway, he saw her stomping on both older men angrily.

"You baka! Look what you did to us! How could you be so stupid?" After she was finished, she caught her breath, turning to face her fiancé, who was staring avidly at her, "Nani? They deserved it. . ." She sniffed angrily.

"Iie, iie. . . I agree completely. . ." He said, grinning dopily at her, looking thoroughly pleased with her reaction to the situation, "You've always been at your best when you're kicking someone's ass, even if it's mine a lot of the time."

"Go get dressed," she said to him, glaring down at the two men unconscious on the floor, "And you two are just lucky that Happosai got here first and I pity you for that." And she turned on her heel and walked towards the living area.

Ranma saluted her and then skipped in the opposite direction, towards his bedroom for a change of clothes. Not wanting to risk spending anytime away from his fiancé, he threw on his regular attire and rushed back to the eating / living room to find Akane with a plate of already half-eaten food in front of her.

"Ah, you're still. . . upset?" He asked stupidly.

"No, not - at - all!" She replied, stuffing a spicy shrimp down her throat with each word. Angrily it seemed, and now overcome with pain on her taste buds, she threw back half a glass of green tea.

In the middle of watching a television show, Kasumi turned with a pleased and oblivious smile, and refilled the younger girl's glass.

"My, you've got such a healthy and fulfilling appetite tonight, Akane. . ." Kasumi said as she did so.

Ranma took a seat next to the female martial artist and Kasumi handed him a plate before turning back to the television, murmuring something that sounded a lot like, "I wonder where Outo-san and Saotome-san are?"

"Er. . . busy." Ranma excused their absence, "Where's Nibiki? And what's that you're watching. . . ?" He continued offhandedly, starting on his own supper.

"Oh, well, Nibiki left about ten minutes ago. She said something about a. . . business transaction? And this is a very interesting documentary on ancient Chinese civilizations. I think they've mentioned Amazon's--" At this, Akane interrupted by loudly slamming her empty drinking glass on the table and reaching her feet, "Daijobou ka, Aka--"

"--I'm fine. . . I'm just going to go to my room now. I've got homework, and I'm pretty tired as it is. Oyasumi, minna-san." She waved, leaving the two family members to themselves.

"Ah, wait! I'll come with you, my kawaii fiancé!" Ranma replied, standing up with a freakishly wide grin on his face and following after her with a very distinct simper.

"Ranma, go back and finish your dinner!" Akane yelled, attempting to edge around him.

"I'm finished! I'm always filled completely, just by looking into your sparkling chocolate eyes! Quench my sweet-tooth, Akane!" He yelled affectionately, jumping at her with his arms held wide. She screamed and threw out her hands to hold him at bay, but someone else got there first.

". . . Ryouga-kun. . . ?" Akane had just enough time to question as the sensitive, yet still sane, martial artist's foot impacted with Ranma's ribcage, and both boys went crashing through the wall and back into the main room, "Ah! Iie, come back here, you two!" She shouted, following after them.

"Don't interfere, Akane-chan! Ranma and I are in the middle of a man-to-man disagreement that has nothing to do with you!" Ryouga said confidently, picking the pigtailed boy up off of the ground by the collar of his shirt and flinging him outside and into the backyard, "Now. . . fight me, Ranma!"

Ranma, in mid-fall, flipped over so that his feet were below him. He landed smoothly and help up his fists in a fighting stance, his formerly flirty and love-struck expression morphing into something both competitive and hostile.

"Nani, Ryouga, what is it you want now? We were busy," after this slight pout, he seemed to lose any understanding of distraction, "Well, whatever; the sooner I get rid of you, the sooner it'll be just me and Akane again!" He turned and winked at her before putting on a burst of speed and running straight at Ryouga, "Katchuu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

The series of punches claimed the eternally lost boy's torso and he skidded backwards, clutching his stomach with one hand and holding himself up in a sturdy kneeling position with the other. Wiping at his brow, he reached his feet again and, rather than going on a rant about Ranma's lack of care for Akane, or rather than impeding forward and taking the offensive route, he turned on his heel and leapt up onto the wall.

"Catch me if you can, Ranma! We'll finish this when you do!" He smirked before jumping down onto the area on the opposite side and taking off down the road towards the park.

"Heh; simple. . ." Ranma replied and quickly followed.

"Matte, Ranma, Ryouga-kun!" Akane yelled, taking a step forward, but then she remembered Ryouga's words, those that justified the two boys' disappearances, and she faltered, "I'll give them a half-an-hour. . . If they're not back by then, I'll go looking for them. . ."

OoO

**Notes **- Yay! Another chapter posted! Now, unfortunately, I've got some bad news. . . I've told you all before that I've had about seven chapters total of this fic finished, and that's not untrue. . . but if you haven't noticed, this was chapter six. The entire "Herbal Remedies" fic is planned out to be eight or nine chapters at this point, but, recently, I've had a bad case of Writer's Block. Whether or not I'll be able to draft out the last couple of chapters on my own throughout this, I'm not sure, but I just felt that I had to warn you all. . . I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again after the next chapter is posted. I'm trying with all my might to use the little bit of inspiration inside of me, but half of it is going to my big-fic, "Illicit Saints". And the chapters for that one are about 15,000 words worth a piece. Ouch.

Nevertheless, I kind of know how I want to end "Herbal Remedies". . . At this point, all that matters is if I want Ranma and Akane to get together or just. . . act like the whole thing was a mishap and whatever. What do you all think? Either way, I plan on having Akane finish it up nicely with beating Ranma around the head for something. . .

Anyway, look forward to the chapter seven about a week from now! Reviews are greatly appreciated!


	7. Whether You Like It Or Not

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad…

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title **- Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Seven **- "Whether You Like It Or Not. . ."

**Summary **- It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance. Kind of. :P

OoO

"Oi, Ryouga, what are you planning?" Ranma murmured to himself as he turned a corner and saw his rival about twenty-five feet ahead of him. He quickened his pace and, after noticing that he was gaining stride, he leapt off of the ground, high into the air, and aimed a kick at Ryouga's heels.

Ryouga, turning to face the pigtailed boy at this, held up his finger and forced it into the earth at his feet, "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

"Agh!" Ranma groaned as the large, almost smoldering pieces of concrete flew at him, tearing at his clothes and skin. He held up his arms and fell back a few feet at the impact of the technique. He looked up just in time to see Ryouga round another corner and followed, avoiding the large and shallow chasm in the middle of the small street, "Come back here, Ryouga. . . !"

The chase lasted quite awhile, as Ryouga seemed to enjoy putting Ranma off, and they'd been running for almost twenty minutes, throwing occasional punches, when Ryouga, having allowed his legs to just carry him wherever for awhile now, noticed a familiar landing up ahead. He couldn't remember what it was, but that it was familiar was enough. He slowed down and turned to face Ranma, who saw fit to tackle him furiously to the ground.

"Nani, what are you doing, Ranma? I'm not going anywhere!" Ryouga said, grabbing Ranma's wrists, as the pigtailed boy was still holding onto his collar.

"You're such a baka! You made me run all around Nerima, chasing you just so that you could lead me back to the front door of the Tendo Dojo!" Ranma shouted, obviously pissed off, "What are you, stupid?"

"Nani. . . ?" Ryouga said, turning to gaze at the sign next to the gate, which indeed read 'Tendo Dojo and Residence', "Ah. . . er. . . Hai, well. . ." He fumbled embarrassedly, "Still, Ranma, now it's just you and me. . . !" He stated confidently, propelling the pigtailed boy over his head so that he landed almost ten feet behind him.

"You want a fight? Fine, I'm game. . ." Ranma said in reply, reaching his feet and cracking his knuckles. Ryouga did the same, then, as Ranma was dashing forward, shouting, "Katchuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" The eternally lost boy's expression changed as though he'd just remembered something.

"Matte, Ranma, matte!" He shouted suddenly, but Ranma went on, nearly sending his fist impacting into the boy's torso multiple times until Ryouga continued speaking, "It's about you and Akane!"

Ranma faltered, almost tripping over his own feet as he came to a stop, his fist barely two inches from Ryouga's face.

"Nani? Akane - me and Akane? What about us, Ryouga?" He said in a much more serious tone.

"I want to know what you meant. What you said back in the bath, about how it wasn't a love spell that Shampoo put you under. . . What were you talking about?" Ryouga responded with a sigh, relieved that the conversation he'd been hoping for was finally under way.

"Is that what you made me run after you for, all this way? Baka. . . !" Ranma wondered aggravatedly, then continued, "Well, it's simple, really. It was a powder, an herb. Shampoo placed it in my food and I ate it. But it didn't make me fall in love with Akane. The herb's supposed to encourage the emotions that are already there. I already loved her, but I didn't really know it, so the herb brought my love forward."

Ryouga looked half-horrified and half-disbelieving, "But why would you ask to be placed under a spell like that to begin with?"

"Ah, you weren't there; that's right. . . Well, Akane was placed under the spell first off. She told me how she really felt but I didn't know if I reciprocated, so I asked to be put under also. You get it now? I know that Akane loves me because she _told _me that she did!"

Looking one hundred percent horrified now, Ryouga gaped open-mouthed, hoping to think of a reason to doubt this plausible tale, other than the fact that he just didn't want to believe it, and then he turned his back on Ranma and stood silent and lonesome, facing the opposite direction.

Ranma had about one second to actually begin feeling sorry for the guy when Ryouga started sniggering under his breath, before it turned into a raucous laugh that could have easily carried into the Tendo residence.

"Sh! Ryouga, what are you thinking? You ran off and made me follow you because you didn't want Akane or anyone to overhear us, right? What's so funny?" Ranma asked, but Ryouga seemed too choked up to answer, "Shimatta. . . !"

"You. . . ! You - you think that I'm. . ." Ryouga held up a hand and finished his bout of laughter before taking a chance to continue his statement, "You really think I'd be foolish enough to believe such a ludicrous explanation? You _are _funny, Ranma! As if Akane would ever actually tell you how she feels, even if she does love you? After everything you've done to her, all the insults, complaints! A girl's feelings are precious, Ranma, but you never understood that about her! And now you feel it's realistic enough for her to come out and say it just like that?" Ryouga scoffed, "What an imagination you've got. . ."

Rather than allowing this to deter his attitude, Ranma's eyes started to sparkle, glowing with a new light of affection for his fiancé.

"You - you're right, Ryouga! I didn't think about it but. . . Akane must really care if, through all of the things I've done to her, she can still fall in love with me! Oh, I owe my kawaii Akane so much for her merciful reverence towards me. . . !" Ranma replied, eyes still glowing. Truth be told, he looked a lot like Happosai on Furinkan co-ed gym day.

"You're out of your mind, baka. Akane could never really profess her love to you. . ." And Ryouga turned to re-enter the dojo.

"I can prove it to you," Ranma said from behind the eternally lost boy, and this caused him to falter in his progress beyond the Tendo residence entrance.

"Can you?" Ryouga looked back, quirking an eyebrow almost curiously. He still looked quite disbelieving to the whole situation.

"Well, part of it, kinda, probably not the part where Akane told me how she felt about me. . ." Ranma laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck in anxiety. Ryouga came up behind him and knocked him upside the head, "Hey! It could be better than nothing!"

"Yea, it _could _be, if you were to really be able to prove it; but then, that's doubtful."

"Hn; we'll see!" And Ranma took off down the road, leaving Ryouga to catch up a few seconds later. Of course, it was obvious that Ranma was going to the Nekohatan to find a way to tempt Ryouga towards the truth, but how would he do it? What was the chance that Shampoo was just going to come out with it, especially if she already held the upper hand? Even his sweet-talking wouldn't do it. . . After all, she knew that the spell had enhanced his love for Akane. . .

Upon approaching the Nekohatan, he circled around back rather than entering the front entrance, coming to a stop just beside the alleyway door leading to the storage area. It was blocked open with a wooden footer, and he had a perfectly narrow view of the room inside.

Shampoo was sitting there, currently alone, a small packet in the palm of her hand. He recognized that packet. . . ! It was definitely the one she had emptied into his soba the other day at his request, and that meant that it had the instruction and warning labels there as well. . . !

"Psst! Ryouga. . . !" He turned around and saw that the eternally lost boy wasn't there. Almost forgetting to keep down his voice, he ran back to the main street and fumed at the sight of Ryouga, spinning confusedly around in circles, not sure as to where he was supposed to be going, "You baka. . . ! You were just here earlier today!" Ranma groaned, running forward and pulling Ryouga in the right direction.

"Nani, what is it, Ranma?" Ryouga said after the pigtailed boy had placed his face close to the door. Shampoo was still inside, staring wistfully at the empty herb sample. Their eavesdropping continued through the sound of Cologne calling from the front of the restaurant.

"Shampoo! Come; we've got customers swimming among our waists!" The older woman entered the room from the opposite wall, where an archway lead to the main restaurant, "Hmm, what are you. . . ? Ah, you are still absorbed in that?"

"Great-grandmother, soon I feel Airen will be mine!" The Amazon warrior giggled.

"You believe so?" Cologne asked in reply, "Well, it would be in good time, now, wouldn't it? But whatever did you tell Akane to ensure this bargain?"

"I tell her to break spell, she must tell Shampoo's Airen that she no love him. Spell will be broken, but. . ." At the start of this comment, Ranma felt the anger boiling inside of him. That certainly explained Akane's attitude, in any case, ". . . She no pay attention when Ranma and I discuss what spell do so she no understand why his personality change. She think I try to make him love me and that make her angry. She too prideful to say she love him now, too, so. . . Ranma forget he ever love her and she know no difference. . . !" And Shampoo took a moment to laugh and applaud herself at the sheer brilliance of her plan.

"Hey. . . Ranma, by 'she', does that Shampoo mean Akane?" Ryouga questioned in a whisper, but Ranma was too busy trying to crush the wall he was holding onto with his bare hands, "What's going on. . . ?"

"She's meddling with something so serious and. . . and she thinks it's _funny_. . . !" Ranma barely managed to contain himself at the thought of what was playing out before him, but he was able to hold back long enough to listen to the end of the conversation between the two Amazons.

"As gratuitous as the situation is for you, I must tell you that the world is still spinning, and we're in need of your skills up front. Put that away and come with me. My son-in-law will come to you soon enough. Until then, let's keep you busy."

"Hai, Great-grandmother!" Shampoo said excitedly. She reached her feet and, slightly distracted by the sounds of people calling from the main part of the restaurant, she absentmindedly went to slip the envelope into her pocket, and didn't notice when it fell to the ground. And then the room was empty.

Thoroughly excited at their luck, Ranma turned once again to explain to Ryouga since he seemed not to have completely caught on earlier before, "Now, do you see that little envelope Shampoo left behind--" but Ryouga didn't seem to be paying attention.

Before Ranma had a chance to move out of the way, Ryouga shoved the door open and rushed inside. Ranma, whose face had still been exceptionally close to the door, impacted with the steel surface and collapsed backwards in response. Not allowing the pain to end his investigation, he jumped up again and followed after the other male martial artist.

"What are you doing, baka? I mean. . ." Ranma whispered furiously, rubbing his red nose, but he faltered as Ryouga swiftly moved to pick up the envelope.

"This - this is. . ." Ryouga started after inspecting the labels, "But that means. . ." He looked at Ranma, who crossed his arms and nodded affirmatively.

"Hai. You got it right; that would explain what's really going on." Afterwards, he allowed his face to widen into a blissful grin, "Ah, and with that, I can finally get Akane to believe me!" Looking thoroughly overexcited at the thought, he tore across the four or so feet to Ryouga's side and held out his hand, "Oh, gimme, gimme!"

However, at Ranma's words, Ryouga's eyes had widened disbelievingly once again, but not because Ranma's explanation wasn't plausible. To the contrary, it was very simple. And it meant that Akane would soon know the whole story. If Ranma was telling the truth about how this started, then Akane already returned his feelings, which meant that, although she obviously wanted him back to normal, she'd also meant that she'd still want him to be in love with her. . .

"No. . ." Ryouga muttered, looking distinguishably horrified.

"Nani? Why not?" Ranma said threateningly, thinking that Ryouga had declined handing the packet over.

"Ranma, no matter what you say, I know that you're taking advantage of her, somehow!" Now moved by emotion, the eternally lost boy took off through the alleyway door and into the busy and bustling streets of the main town before Ranma had even realized what was going on, "I can't believe you'd do that to her, or me!"

". . . N - nani. . . ?" The pigtailed boy questioned confusedly, turning to stare at the open door, "Shimatta! You'd think the way he was going on that I was breaking _his _heart!" Raising an eyebrow in thought, it took only a moment for him to realize, indeed, he probably was, which was a good thing, since he didn't have much time to dwell on the fact, "Hey! He took the herbal packet! That baka!"

And Ranma took off out the door, following in what he hoped was the general direction of where Ryouga was headed. However, he'd taken no more than five steps out into the main street when a voice called out to him from behind and, thinking it was Shampoo, he wracked up his brain to try and find an excuse for having just walked out of the one-way alley leading to the Nekohatan.

"Honestly, I leave you alone for half-an-hour and you go running into Shampoo's arms? Baka; I knew this whole love-thing was a fake. . ." Akane muttered, stomping swiftly up to take the spot beside him, "Now, what did you do to poor Ryouga-kun?"

Well, thank Kami-sama that it was only his love, Akane, the fiancé who currently thought he'd just finished having a tryst with another woman, and that he'd just killed the only true rival for her affection. . . Suddenly, the want to clear his name grew so powerful that he couldn't hold it back, and he completely forgot about regaining the herbal envelope from Ryouga for the time being.

"Oh, but Akane, I'd never run to Shampoo; as long as I have you, I'm completely happy. . . Why else do you think I snuck out the back of the Nekohatan, if not to be sure that Shampoo wouldn't see me?" Thankfully, he could tell that he'd peaked his fiancé's curiosity by this credible excuse, "I came here with Ryouga, to prove to him that you and I are really in love. . ." At this, Akane tore away from him and glared menacingly.

"Excuse me? Baka! We are _not _in love! And there's nothing in the world that could prove otherwise, to Ryouga-kun, me, or anyone else!" She yelled, turning away from him.

"Ano. . . Demo, Akane, I can prove it. Ryouga believes me. . . He just ran off with the evidence a few seconds before you got here." Ranma replied and pointed in the direction he was hoping the eternally lost boy had gone in.

"Baka, I can't believe you!" Akane continued shouting, "I can see where you'd believe you were really in love with me after Shampoo slipped that - that whatever it was into your food a few days ago, demo. . ." The young girl broke off, looking suddenly hurt, ". . . Demo, to trick poor Ryouga-kun into thinking that, too. . . I never thought that you'd be so. . ." She seemed so upset as she turned away from him that he could only pray that he was able to fix things immediately on his own.

"Gomen, Akane, I have to know. . ." He cleared his throat after placing a tentative hand on her shoulder, ". . . Why is it so hard for you to believe that I might really be in love with you. . . ? I mean, I know that I haven't treated you the greatest, but has our engagement truly been so horrible that you'd think Shampoo more accurate about how I feel for you than me, myself. . . ?" She faced him and tried to think of something to say but faltered when she noticed that he didn't seem to be finished speaking, "And I don't know if you remember, but our lives have become fairly maddening since we met. . . so maybe you should give me the benefit of the doubt before you instantly accuse me of fake-loving you. You never know, after all. . . My side of the story might just be more realistic than Shampoo's."

Without realizing it, the two of them had arrived back at the Tendo home. Ranma couldn't help noticing the way his fiancé was looking at him; it was more like she was trying to look _through _him.

They stopped just outside the door to the dojo. Akane still seemed to be contemplating his words. And just when Ranma was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable, Akane breathed a resigned sigh, turned to open the door, and in the process of holding it long enough for him to pass through, gave an unexpected reply.

"Fine, Ranma; let me finally hear what you have to say."

OoO

Ryouga sat on the roof of some anonymous building after figuring that he'd escaped far enough from Ranma that he could finally have some time to think to himself. The chilly evening wind blew around him, causing the herb packet he held tightly in his hand to whistle.

Sighing despondently, he allowed the many different faces of his personality to take over.

_Ranma could still be lying_, the part of him that acknowledged the rivalry the two boys shared flared up instantly, _It's something he definitely wouldn't mind doing to me, breaking me by making me believe that Akane's life would be a pleasant one without me in it. . ._ At this, he distractedly ran a hand through his hair and implored deeply the small envelope held in his other, _Iie. . . How could he have put this entire thing together on his own? It's definitely not something he could have maintained alone, and so flawlessly, for so long. . ._

The Amazon Shampoo's face leapt at him from the deepest crevices of his memory.

_Not on his own now, though, is he. . . ? She could excuse this whole thing as some historical element from her country. . . which is exactly what she did! Demo, iie. . . what motive would she really have against me in particular, anyway? Especially one so prominent that she wouldn't mind playing Ranma off to be in love with Akane at the same time. . . Iie, Iie, it makes no sense that way. . . Demo, then. . ._

His eyes widened. He's been thinking of this whole situation as though it had been planned against him. He and Ranma had always shared a vindictive type of friendship or rivalry or whatever it was, and maybe the pigtailed boy had finally outgrown allowing him to take advantage of his position as P-chan? But, as Ryouga had figured, even if Shampoo had helped this along, what reason did she have against him? And why would she be so. . . so okay with allowing Ranma to go on with Akane like that as well without growing just a bit worried? That's why none of it made sense. That's why that couldn't be what was going on.

Ranma was a victim here, he could see that. . . And Ryouga was leaning more and more towards what explanation the pigtailed boy had given him earlier on. . . There was still a chance, though, that it was fake, that it was all a lie. If Ranma was still just another victim, well, it made sense that he would think his feelings for Akane were _real_. . . It made _sense_. . . But then, what about this herb that seemed to truly exist. . . ?

_I'm holding the evidence of it right in my hand. . . I can't just pretend that it doesn't say what it does. . . And since I figure that Ranma and that Shampoo aren't in this together, that means that this thing couldn't be a fake. . . After all, Ranma noticed it immediately from outside that restaurant, and I grabbed a hold of it first, so he couldn't have replaced it with something of his own imagination. . ._

Ryouga groaned. Every which way he looked at it, nothing seemed to work the way he thought it would. He could feel his heart breaking already, the way things were going.

Dejectedly, furiously, the eternally lost boy began to crumple the packet in his hand, _There's one way to ensure that my life isn't ruined for good because of this. . . _He thought as he did so. . . but then he stopped. That wasn't right. There was one other full-proof method for finding out for sure if things were finally coming to a close in the jumpy upstart of a romance novel he was caught up in the middle of.

"I'll just have to ask Akane for myself how she feels for Ranma. . ." Ryouga sighed again upon coming to this realization.

Standing up, he placed the slightly worn herb envelope up his sleeve for safe keeping and took a few steps towards the front of the roof he was sitting on. He could only hope he could find his way back to the Tendo dojo before Ranma and Akane were forced to wed each other.

He leapt down onto the almost empty street below him and looked up just in time to see the last remnants of sunshine disappear beyond the horizon. As he started off towards where he thought the Tendo residence was, he didn't take care to notice the young girl with long lavender hair and a frilly apron around her slim figure putting up a 'closed' sign outside the restaurant across the street from where he'd been sitting before.

Shampoo just happened to turn in the direction of the boy, one who she recognized from however many attempts she'd gone through with to try and make Ranma fall in love with her. She knew also that this young man, this Ryouga Hibiki, was supposed to be in love with Akane.

The memory of her discussion with the younger female martial artist from earlier that day came back to her. He had been there, too, hadn't he? She had barely noticed him. And now that he was back. . . The thought made the Amazon infinitely curious. Could the not-so-common reappearance of this boy complicate her plans? Could he assist or deter what she'd worked so hard to accomplish or, indeed, effect anything at all. . . ?

She wasn't willing to take any chances.

Throwing off her apron, Shampoo shouted a hurried apology and farewell to Cologne and took off, trailing after Ryouga at such a distance and with such subtlety that he would've had no luck in realizing that she was there to begin with.

It was finally time to see how all of this would end.

OoO

**Notes **- Wahahah! Yes! Finally, a new chapter! Sorry it took a couple weeks longer than planned to update! You see, I had this problem with the next chapter; alongside the fact that it's still not finished, part of what I did have written seemed a bit. . . OOC on Akane's part, but I think, in my head anyway, that I've finally solved the problem. I still don't know if I will be ready to post again next week, but I'm hoping it'll be ready sooner than this chapter was.

Oh, and for the record, this fic will only be another one or two chapters long. I still haven't decided. I'm also wondering about doing a sequel at some point in my hectic authoress-ing life. Lol.

Now, please review! I only got six of them last time! That's an all-time low for me!

Oh, a P.S., I'm writing a one-shot ficcie. I'm hoping that it'll be posted by Valentine's Day, but I'm not sure. Anyway, stay tuned. . .


	8. Don't Be Disappointed

A **Ranma ½** fan fiction…

**Author** – Chibi / Warlordess

**Disclaimer** – I don't own Ranma ½; it is a product by the great Rumiko Takahashi. I'm also not creative enough to make up a better disclaimer than that. How sad. . .

**Notes** – I have no idea how this idea came to me. I went from having no inspiration or confidence for R/A fan fiction to harboring this suddenly evolved plot that just popped out of nowhere. It was just, I could see this as something in the series, I guess. Those who've read the manga might not agree with me first off thanks to the summary I gave you, but it is a bit misleading, so you'll just have to find out why. Also, let it be known… I HATE THAT TITLE! DIE, TITLE!

**Dedication** – To my online sister, Silverflare07, who sent me the first through third seasons of the anime and who encouraged the creation and progress of this fic. She's the one who deserves it most of all.

OoO

**Title **- Herbal Remedies

**Chapter Eight **- "Don't Be Disappointed"

**Summary **- It started with Akane's losing her mind and telling Ranma that she loved him, and then it was his unwillingness to tell her he didn't feel the same way. . . But how did all of this madness start, and when? R x A romance. Kind of. :P

OoO

Three days later, early morning would find Akane sneaking out of her room with her arms full, heading towards the bath. In fact, she seemed to be holding the things so closely to her chest as she walked that it seemed like she was ensuring that her face couldn't be seen.

This was how it had been for her since the discussion she and Ranma had had days earlier. After her fiancé had come out with the story of what had been going on, for some reason, she'd been left, not angry, not disbelieving, but thoroughly embarrassed.

It was as Ranma had said to her, after all. It was possible that his crazy love story was more plausible than Shampoo's tale of a simple mistake. And, strangely enough, as she, Akane, listened to what the pigtailed boy had to say to her, she couldn't help agreeing. Now, she wasn't sure if that was because some twisted part of her actually hoped that Ranma might be in love with her, or maybe she just realized on some deep, subconscious level that it was easier to trust him than the Amazon warrior.

But then, after she'd heard everything Ranma had had to say, she'd been left to deal with the aftermath on her own. And, according to him, once Ryouga decided to show up from wherever it was he'd disappeared to, she'd finally be able to see this 'proof' she'd heard so much about. . .

Anyway, after Ranma had finished talking to her about his side of the story, she'd numbly reached her feet and left the comfort of the family room and walked away, but she knew that it wasn't before she and her fiancé had formed a silent understanding between each other; she just needed some time. To think, to reminisce, to do whatever she needed to. . . And he'd gotten that for once. He hadn't whimpered her name, sweet-talked her, grabbed a hold of her waist, or any such thing since then.

But now, three days since that whole thing had come and gone and she wasn't much closer to solving the puzzle that had made itself known to her over the past week.

What she did know, the one small tidbit of knowledge she'd gained since first she began to wonder, was that she liked it. She didn't like the constant touching, or the entirely sappy demeanor, or anything like that, but she simply loved the idea of being. . . well. . . _loved_. She didn't find it 'flattering' on so many levels as much as she just knew it was worth appreciating how Ranma may have really felt for her. . .

. . . But did that mean that she felt the same way for him?

Had someone asked her that a few days ago and she'd have turned scarlet in fury and probably whacked the person soundly over the head with her bokken; now, however. . . Really, if she did, then the feeling, while not farfetched, was somehow. . . premature. . . If Akane really did love Ranma, then she wasn't supposed to know it yet. At this point, the emotion just made her feel awkward. . .

It was lucky for her that Ranma understood that and was allowing her some space to figure everything out. . . But how long could she afford. . . ? There was no way she could live with this Ranma forever. Even justified, it still wasn't him; keeping him this way would be like committing some form of injustice, she was sure. . .

But dare she tell him what Shampoo had told her to? Dare she tell Ranma she didn't love him. . . ? Her fiancé had only been too eager to explain why she'd better not, leaving her to understand that if she did say those words to him, any affection he may have held for her would simply vanish on the spot. . . But what about Shampoo? Akane seriously doubted that the Amazon would remain absent during such a serious situation for much longer. . .

Still, for now, what was she to do to occupy her time? She didn't feel confident enough about herself, somehow, to tell Ranma she loved him, but she definitely wasn't compelled enough to tell him the opposite, either. . . And she couldn't just leave everything as it was. . . She felt trapped, suffocated. . . And she felt pressed to react in a way that she didn't know how.

She was growing irritated. She thought that figuring out that Ranma's feelings for her were real would ease her anger, but, contrary to that, she found herself growing more and more frustrated about things in general.

"It's all Shampoo's fault. . ." The thought wouldn't cease crossing her mind. If Shampoo hadn't been so quick to assume that that herb of hers would end things so well then this wouldn't be happening. . . Ranma wouldn't be acting so off, she, Akane, wouldn't be slinking around corners to avoid talking to him, everything would be just as it always was. . . "Why'd she have to do this. . . ?"

For a brief moment, Akane almost considered telling Ranma that she loved him, just to spite the Amazon warrior. . . But that was soon quashed by pure human virtue. There was no way she'd use Ranma like that. . . No; it was out of the question.

As Akane sat herself into the tub, relaxing amongst the bubbles, hot water, and scents of ivory and lavender, she attempted to amuse herself with thoughts of how things would turn out after (or even _if_) she decided to tell Ranma she loved him; instead, this only worried her. After all, what if he just acted as he always did? She admitted to herself that she did miss him, but that didn't mean that she wanted to deal with his carelessness or mockery after such a romantic notion. . .

And what about everyone else? Would their fathers use such a strangely acquired confession to steer the two of them into marriage? Would both Kuno and Kodachi, Ukyou and Shampoo, Ryouga and Gosenkuge, and everyone else end up waging war against them or be forcibly removed by people like the entire Tendo and Saotome family, and Happosai, who'd decide to take advantage of the many heartbroken girls in their weak element?

Hearing the sounds of her awakening family from outside the bathroom, Akane stood up and pulled the drain stopped, watching as the frothy, soapy water vanished. She wrapped herself up in her towel and stepped as quickly as possible, exiting into the laundry room and picking at her clothes.

Ever since her talk with Ranma leading to her utter embarrassment, she'd started the day early every morning. She bathed before anyone else was up, and after that, requested Kasumi to prepare an easy breakfast for her so that she could eat before the table was set. Then she would head to school an hour early, where she'd wait upstairs in the classoom. Given, in class, she couldn't avoid Ranma as easily as anywhere else, but seeing as personal contact would get them in trouble anyway, she knew that he wouldn't even try to catch her eye.

But today was Sunday. This posed a problem. She knew that she could bathe and eat and leave for school before the sun had even risen, but there'd be no way for her to get inside the building on a day when it was closed and locked down.

Knowing that she couldn't remain where she was forever, knowing that sticking around here would surely cause awkward issues with her family, Akane stepped out of the laundry room and into the hallway, regretting it almost instantly as she went crashing straight into Ranma, the very person she'd been hoping to avoid the most, as he was walking by outside.

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were stalking me, Ranma. . ." She commented, elbowing her way around the anxiety that seemed to be crippling their relationship nowadays.

"Well, if it would make you happy, I'll willingly oblige to the task." Her fiancé responded in such a serious tone that she almost fainted. . . He wasn't joking about that. How very. . . _obsessive _and _creepy_. . . of him.

"Ano. . . Iie, that's alright; I think Kuno following me around and Happosai popping out of nowhere is enough for me at the moment." Akane replied, making sure to stress the declination of his offer, "Anyway, hai, I must be going. There's breakfast, and then I've got things to do. . . Hai, hai. . . A lot of things. . ."

She turned to walk in the opposite direction, but Ranma, who seemed to be throwing caution to the wind, grabbed a hold of her lingering hand at the last moment.

The sound of her heart pulsing in her ears almost prevented her from hearing what he had to say.

"Really, Akane, how long is this going to last? Because, for what it's worth, I haven't taken to stalking you like it seems, demo, if it's the only way for us to ever fold a civil conversation with each other, then I'm sad to say that I might just be resorting to that sometime soon. . ."

Akane opened her mouth to argue, but Ranma removed his hand from hers and held it up to stop her. As though inclined to listen to him continue, she didn't leave him there as she easily could've done now that he'd let go of her.

"Look, I'm not trying to say that we have to - to talk about all that's been going on; the last thing I wanna go is force you into all of that before you're ready. . . I though you were before, but I - I guess that I was wrong. . . Anyway, I don't think it's fair that that one topic of discussion can ruin everything else about us. . ." The pigtailed boy took a deep breath and then continued, "See, the point is that I still wanna be able to spend time with you. . . We don't even have to think about all of. . . well. . . everything that's going on; we can find ways to keep busy. . . So, well, I'd really like it if you'd maybe, you know, agree to spend the day with me?"

Among all the anxiety and embarrassment, Akane could tell that he was simply inclined to miss her over the past few days. And, well, she would have thought it strange before, but now that she'd heard his side of the story and now that she was actually thinking about believing him, it seemed almost comprehendible that she'd missed him too; though the whole fiasco of the past three days had been her fault to begin with.

And now he was kindly confronting her about it, and inviting her to do something with him (although what it was going to be, even he didn't know) and promising her that any place, any person, anything in general that reminded her of the very thing she was trying to ignore would surely be avoided. And though, on some level, she knew that being around him in itself was only going to increase the urgency for closure of said problem, she thought that the idea was so sweet that she didn't want to turn him down.

But then, really, could she count on things to get anymore crazy than they already were. . . ?

"Ano. . . Hai, Ranma. . ." She sighed, giving in so easily that she almost thought it was somehow dangerous, "I - I guess that it's fine. . ." Ranma's face lit up into an amazingly grateful smile before she continued, "Demo, I don't want any of that 'aishiteru' and 'my kawaii fiancé' stuff. Onegai, just for now. . ." She explained to him.

"Hai, hai. . . !" Ranma nodded his head vigorously and then, still with a wide grin on his face, he saluted her in a dorky manner and ran past her and twirled mid-jump while on his way downstairs for breakfast. He looked a lot like Tofu-sensei after Kasumi had presented herself to him, "We'll leave after we're done eating!" He decided for himself, and his shout reached her ears.

She should have argued with him over that. After all, what right did he have to dictate when she should be expected to go out. . . ? She should at least have a part in the decision, shouldn't she? But those thoughts had barely breached the surface of her temperamental mind when it hit her. . .

Ranma had just asked her out on a date. And she had agreed.

Well, he'd never actually called it a date. . . and, sometimes, he acted so oblivious around her about things that she wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't realized what it meant when he'd asked her, either.

However, if the evil, conniving baka was aware of what he'd been doing, and he'd intended for it to sound totally innocent when, really, he was planning to make another move on her. . . Well, she was sure to be ready now, wasn't she?

_You watch yourself, Ranma; I'll be keeping an eye on you very closely while we're out. . ._ Akane glowered to herself as she stalked back to her bedroom to drop off her bathing things and then set off determinedly for the main room so that she could get a start on breakfast.

OoO

That plan, however, lasted barely twenty minutes after they'd left the dojo and began walking around town. Obviously Ranma's perception had greatly improved, as, even though their 'date' had just started, he'd already caught her staring determinedly at him six times.

"You know, Akane, there's no doubt that I'm so thoroughly attractive but you don't need to keep staring at me like someone's about to rip my face off. . . You know that you can look at it whenever you want to." He told her finally in a very cheeky way, "I'm giving you my permission."

Akane knew that he was just trying to steer clear of the uber-romantic comment that he oh-so wanted to make, and she was both appreciative and aggravated with him for succeeding to do so. It just seemed that every comment he made was either complimentary towards her or insulting, and he couldn't seem to find a moderation between the two, a neutrality.

"Ah, gomen," he said immediately, and Akane almost tripped over herself in her haste to wonder if she'd actually been glaring at him. After all, how else could he have known that she wasn't exactly taking a liking to his humor? "I couldn't help it. Honestly, I thought you'd wanna hear something like that from me at this point. . . Anyway, why were you staring at me like that, really. . . ?" He asked just as they made it through the front entrance to the park.

"Oh, well, it's. . ." Akane fumbled, trying not to sound too suspicious of him. But then, if she spent the whole day making sure that he wasn't trying to pull something on her, she wouldn't be able to enjoy anything, really, would she? And, if nothing else, Ranma was _sure _to notice that. . . In the end, it just seemed better to clear the air right here and now, "Do you consider this a date?" She noticed that her opening statement was such a blunt question that even she felt it sounded a bit more than accusatory than it should've been, "Iie, I mean, when you came out with asking me to come spend the day with you this morning, did you expect me to agree to it as a date, so that you could try to win me over again. . . ?"

It took a moment for Ranma to answer, and for a moment, she thought that she'd been right. But the sheepish grin that suddenly found its way to her fiancé's face, the way he stared embarrassedly back at her, the hand he moved to the back of his neck, all seemed so. . . unfitting for the confirmation she was looking for.

"Honestly, Akane, I don't know what I expected, demo, it certainly wasn't your approval of the idea of spending the day with me. . . I asked you this morning more out of _desperation _than anything else. . ." At this, Akane's brow furrowed in anger, in misunderstanding, "Iie, I meant that I was desperate because we hadn't talked in three days, and you kept avoiding me. . . ! After all that I told you about the herb and everything. . . well, I knew you'd want to ignore anything to do with it for awhile so that you could think things through, but I didn't know at the time that it meant you'd be ignoring _me _entirely, too! I just hoped today, when I asked you out here, I could use the opportunity to help us get past all that. You know how the herb manifests my love for you so strongly that it's at its purest level, right. . . ?"

"I - I thought I said we wouldn't be talking about this today, Ranma. . ." Akane replied, but the look on Ranma's face was so imploringly serious that she felt herself compelled to answer anyway, "Hai, I - I know. . ."

"Well, since you haven't talked to me, or hit me, or even looked at me for so long, in the state I'm in. . . It's been so bad for me over the past few days that I'd almost call is physically mutilating. . . It was actually painful, torturous. . ." The look on his face, Akane finally recognized it now; it was agony. And for once, she understood that it was her fault, and she accepted that responsibility for once.

"G - gomen nasai, Ranma, I - I didn't know. . ." She said, and she turned away from him as her eyes began tearing up. Of course she hadn't known. She was so selfish to be worried only about her own sanity. . . Really, she should have guessed what Ranma was going through. After all, giving up on Tofu-sensei had caused so much grief, so much heartache, of her own at that time, so she should have gotten that. . . ! How could she have missed it so easily? "Gomen. I can't believe that I was so wrong. After what happened between me and Tofu-sensei, I can't believe I couldn't see how you were going through the same thing as me, that time. . . !"

"Er. . . Ano. . . Matte!" Ranma started with a slight flinch, catching on, "Y - You don't have to cry about it, Akane! It's not your fault!" Obviously, he hadn't expected her to actually come to terms with how she was involved with causing his pain. "C - c'mon, Akane, y - you know better than to listen to me complaining! I'm just a - a baka, hentai cross dresser! What do I know, ne?" But this didn't seem to stop her.

"Ah, you're not the baka this time, Ranma, I am! I should have expected you to feel this way after I left you to yourself like I did! I mean, I felt it, too! After Tofu-sensei. . ." She sniffled here, and Ranma flinched again and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"Ack, stop feeling guilty! It's not your fault! Kami-sama, I brought you out here to have a good time, not to make you feel this way!"

"B - but what about what I did to you? I can't ignore it, since I know how it feels, after Tofu-sensei--"

"--You're not helping by talking about him, Akane!" Ranma shouted, finally sounding like a shadow of his older self, if not out of jealousy, "I don't wanna hear anything else to do with your trysts with _Tofu-sensei_. . ." He mocked the doctor's name in a green way, and this caused Akane's tears to stop falling quite suddenly as her face began glowing red out of anger at the insinuation.

"You are a baka, if you think that anything really was going on between us!" She shouted, advancing so swiftly towards him that their faces were soon barely an inch apart. The romantic notion that might have been visible, however, was ruined by the fact that she looked ready to rip his head off.

"Aa, Akane. . ." And then he was backing away from her and smiling in that 'you've got me hooked' sort of way, and she was again turning red, but not out of anger, or embarrassment this time, "It's good to see that you're finally back to yourself. I was afraid that you'd started to go soft on me. . . And you know how I can't stand a crying girl." Even through the grin, she could tell that he was anxious to move on to their next topic of conversation, so that they didn't end up back-pedaling and making their entire last few minutes of personal discussion useless. "Besides, you need to get it through your _thick _head. . ." Okay, she was starting to look mighty angry again, ". . . that it's not your job to read my mind. . . And it was just as wrong of me, if not more-so, to put you on the spot like that in such a public place. I was only trying to explain things for your benefit, but I guess that, in the end, I got just a bit too carried away." Her fiancé replied.

Akane allowed one of the smallest of grins to grace her slightly splotchy features as she regained her spot at his side and poked him three times in the cheek, "You _are _the baka here, the way you act so understanding like this. . . It makes me feel even worse, somehow."

Ranma patted her on the shoulder again with a friendly expression on his face, "Nah, don't worry about it too much. It won't be around for long once the spell's broken. Then I'll probably just go back to being my annoying and dense self. It's a shame, really. I'm gonna miss me when I'm gone." He said, that arrogant smirk from before returning with a vengeance, "Anyway, c'mon, let's go do something for awhile, like maybe go out on the lake, and then we can get some lunch. . . !" He finished, looking almost excited at the idea of food, even though they'd just had breakfast barely an hour ago, and he took a couple of steps towards the dock where they would have the opportunity to rent one of the rowing boats, "You know, before the fiancé horde decides to show up and add to the fun. . ." He rolled his eyes to enlighten her of his sarcasm.

Akane wiped a bit at her face and followed after him, only just barely suppressing her own opinion, that was, that if she hadn't been missing the Ranma she'd always known so much, she might've just been inclined to allow this one to stay, as well.

Throughout the next couple of hours, Akane attempted to enjoy herself with Ranma, all so that he could enjoy himself because, after all, it was obvious that that was what he needed over anything else. And she supposed that this would have to be a heavy but temporary substitution for the absence of any romantic reply she might not be willing to share with him anytime soon.

But why? She knew that he loved her. Or, well, she believed that it was the case. . . Didn't she? Was she still doubting him, after all of the things he'd told her, after everything he'd said? Then again, Ranma had said many things on his own without any spell's effects that would have left her head spinning at other times, rather because she'd have been oh-so willing to bash his head in for his insensitivity, or because he'd so easily been able to take her breath away. . .

Staring at him sitting across from her on the rowboat, steering them gently along the surface of the lake. . . There were no impending disturbances, no prophecies of doom, no disgusting hentai appearing out of nowhere to either glomp her, or to turn Ranma into a girl and glomp _him_. . . And Ranma still had this small, handsome grin on his face as he stared openly at her, gentlemanly, and even though she could feel herself flushing under his gaze, she couldn't seem to find the courage to look him in the eye anymore.

Perhaps she was growing to like this feeling, this situation, a bit too much. . .

_"Unless. . . you _do _love Ranma and spell is convenient for you?" _Shampoo had asked of her, when she'd wondered about telling Ranma that she didn't love him being the only way to get him back to normal.

She had denied that, said it was crazy and impossible and yet, at the same time, felt herself going scarlet then, too, and she had known that she was lying, and she had known that Shampoo had been aware of that fact, as well.

_But it really doesn't matter how much I might love the baka, or vice-versa. . ._ Akane admitted, _. . . Because this isn't the way he is. And when he comes back to normal, when I'm forced to top this whole thing off, like I know that I'll have to, we'll both go back to the way things were before, with everyone else coming between us, those. . . interferences. . . We'll be right back where we started. . . No matter how little I might actually agree with that. . . _Somehow, the thought of it all was beginning to make her feel queasy.

"Ano, Ranma. . . ? Can we head back? I think that I'm beginning to feel seasick or something."

"Hai. . . !" He replied instantly, and she saw a flash of worry reflected in his eyes as he turned them around. She was barely able to contain her frown.

_This isn't the way he is. . . The real Ranma is rude and abrasive and. . . He doesn't know how to treat me, at least, not as a girl. . . When he's returned to himself, what will it be like? Will we actually. . . be together? Will we go back to denying everything? Will I go back to being a. . . kawaikunai, built-like-a-brick tomboy. . . ? This doesn't feel right, anyway, this doesn't feel real or - or something like that. . . I don't think. . ._

Their boat touched land and Ranma reached his feet, hopping out and holding out a hand to escort her aboard the docks as well. She accepted it and cautiously returned the small grin he gave her, as though willing herself not to become buried any deeper into the six-foot-deep situation that was becoming quite apparent. But as soon as he'd turned away from her and began to lead her down the pathway and back into town, she felt her heart plummet into her stomach in despair.

_. . . I don't know if I believe him, after all._

OoO

**Notes **- Gods, this chapter had absolutely no humour whatsoever, but I think I loved it, probably more than all of the others. . . Well, more than most of them, anyway. The last line was absolutely worth it! Heh, heh! I'm so proud of myself for finally finishing this chapter! Man, I had hoped that this one, or the next would be the last, but I'm really not so sure. I'm thinking that the tenth will be it, though, so look forward to it.

Okay, now, moving on! Uhm, I want to make sure you all know. . . Ranma and Akane's "date" isn't exactly over. I would have continued with it in this chapter, but I figured that it was long enough by now, so I'll finish it up in the next part, and then start up the final confrontation with Ryouga finally finding his way back into Nerima. . . And poor Shampoo, having forgotten about his poor sense of direction and so she ended up following him all the way out to who-know's-where. . . Lol. . .

Anyway, yea! So, anyone who reviews gets my appreciation! It's not much, but, hey! I'm poor! Also, they'll probably get another chapter, since I live off of reviews and comments / compliments are what I feed off of. . . Heh, heh. . .

Until next time!

Oh, wait. . . I think (well, I feel that it's true, but then again, I could be wrong) that Akane was OOC in this chapter, but then, emotions were running pretty high, and I mean, there have been some truly dramatic scenes in the Ranma manga/anime to fit this type of thing to. . . What do you guys think? Was it good enough?


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